:-^^- 



l\- 



DS 

Has 




IMPERIAL MONUMENT RAISED TO THE MEMORY OF THE 
FAITHFUL WIDOW, HE'MEL 



Another China 



NOTES ON THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE 

AS VIEWED BY A CATHOLIC BISHOP 



BY THE / P^0\^ ^A^f^/' 

RIGHT REVEREND MONSEIGNEUR REYNAUD, CM. 

Vicar Apostolic of the District of Tche-Kiaiig. 

Mttb JUustratlons 



EDITED BY 

M. T. KELLY, 



A^ 



DUBLIN : 
BROWNE & NOLAN, Limited; M H. GILL & SON. 

LONDON: BURNS & OATES, LIMITED. 
NEW YORK. CINCINNATI, & CHICAGO: BENZIGER BROTHERS. 

1897. 



a.^o's^v 






e c- ^ o e- • 



e e • c 



e -»-0®»» » "»- e- 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. — Fore-Word . _ _ . _ i 

II. — False Notions about China - - - - 5 

III.^ — A Few Facts and Figures - - - - 11 

IV. — Obstacles to the Spread of the Faith - - 2 

V. — Protestant and Catholic Missions - - 30 

VI. — A Word for the Chinaman - - - - 41 

VII. — Chinese Language and Institutions - - 49 

VIII. — Some Virtues of the Chinese - - - 58 

IX.— The Native Catholic Body - - - 64 

X. — Our Future Prospects — Evidence of the Mis- 
sionaries - - - - - - 76 

XI. — Our Workers and their Wants - - - 88 

XII. — Parting Words _ _ . _ . 100 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Imperial Monument raised to the memory of the 

faithful widow, He-Mei . . - . Frontispiece 

Hospice of Aged Women at Ning-Po {Sisters of Charity) - 15 

The Boys' School at Ning-Po (Sisters of Charity) - - 25 

Church of St. Paul, Wenchow - - - - - 33 

Brass Band of the Petit Seminaire, Chu-San - - - 49 

Native Priests of the 7 che-Kiang Vicariate - - - 65 

Group of the Chu Family, Ning-Po - - - - 72 

Community of the Virgins of Purgatory - - - - 92 



This Utile u'ork is issued by the Avch-Confratevnity of 
St. jfoseph, Protector of the Souls in Purgatory. 

Any profits arising from the sale will he devoted to the education 
of St. jfoseph' s Yo7mg Priests for China. 



L 

FORE'WORD. 

China has frequently been described in English by 
persons representing various interests, and therefore 
viewing the country through many-coloured glasses. 
Diplomatists and missionaries have had their word to 
say, as also traders and tourists, ethnologists, and 
strategists. Nor has the picture of the Celestials, 
drawn by these combined authorities, been a flattering 
one. "Probably the prevailing impression left on the 
English mind is that the inhabitants of China are a 
villainous crew, a disgrace to humanity, as well as a 
menace to civilization, and good for nothing, except 
to be held up by superior people as an everlasting 
mockery./ 

From This view, Monseigneur Reynaud differs pro- 
foundly. He has lived with the people, to some extent 
as one of themselves, and it is his belief that of the 
China of the Catholic missionaries many good things 
ought to be uttered. He feels, moreover, that it would 



/V^ 



2 ANOTHER CHINA. 

be to the no slight advantage of his cause that a larger 
and truer view of the prospects of Catholicity should 
prevail, and more especially among the English-speaking 
races. Having recently arrived in Europe, on his visit 
to the Holy See, and in order to advance the interests 
of the flock committed to his care, he has prepared the 
following notes to be published simultaneously, and 
with identical illustrations, in France, and in this 
country. 

As is natural, the remarks of the Bishop chiefly refer 
to his own district, the Apostolic Vicariate of Tche- 
Kiang, which, though of recent formation as a distinct 
ecclesiastical territory, is not without relative importance. 
The episcopal residence is in the city of Ning-Po, a 
large seaport some hundred miles to the south of 
Shang-Hai, and more or less under British protection. 
Many Europeans are living there, and on the whole 
things are better frorA a European point of view than in 
places further up the country. Even the Catholics at 
Ning-Po are comparatively well ofl", especially as to the 
number of the Catechumens. Thus the reader will do 
well to bear in mind that when Monseigneur Reynaud 
speaks favourably of his own surroundings, we may not 
always apply his statements, at least in an equal degree, 
to the whole of China. This immense territory, we 
must never forget, contains eighteen vast provinces, 
each of which is really like a small kingdom in extent. 
The soil in different parts varies much, so do the 



FORE^WORa 3 

customs, and even the religions, of the people ; so that 
what is true of one part is not necessarily true of the 
rest ; and the differences between North and South 
China are to be specially noted. 

Notwithstanding the above limitations, it is almost 
self-evident that for gaining a clear and vivid idea of 
what life in China really is, a truthful and unimpassioned 
account of a single locality from a good authority, is 
worth a great deal of vague and declamatory writing 
from those who imagine they know all about this vast 
extent of country, but who have neither thrown in their 
lot with the people, nor even really dwelt among them. 
And if our authority should, upon closer acquaintance, 
reveal himself as something of an enthusiast for the 
Chinese — he would be the last to resent this accusation — 
yet, will it not be only too easy for the reader to find in 
the literature of the subject many a corrective for a too 
favourable impression of the * Heathen Chinee' ? 

In preparing the English version, the Editor has 
departed but slightly from the original, and has only 
ventured to make to it a few trifling additions. Such 
as have been made consist principally of extracts 
from the latest English authorities on China. In many 
cases they appear to confirm Monseigneur Reynaud's 
statements remarkably, and as they are chiefly Protestant 
writers, they will naturally carry great weight with 
English and Irish readers, and possibly will add in no 
slight degree to their interest in the notes. 



4 ANOTHER CHINA, 

The aim of the work is a practical one. It is intended 
not merely to show that the gradual conversion of China 
is no chimerical undertaking, but also to insist on the 
great and pressing need that exists for priests to put 
their hand to the task. May it quicken zeal in 
many an English or an Irish heart to come to the rescue 
of these poor abandoned souls, either by a life's devotion, 
or, where that cannot be given, by help to such as will 
give it. 




FALSE NOTIONS ABOUT CHINA, 



IL 

FALSE NOTIONS ABOUT CHINA. 

The inquiry has frequently been made, if it can be 
possible to convert to Christianity a nation like the 
Chinese, who are supposed to be devoid of all morahty, 
and to be endowed with the most villainous disposition. 
The falsity of this opinion must now be shown, and In 
order to do this thoroughly, it Is necessary to speak of the 
prejudices against the Chinamen, of the local difficulties 
that Impede missionary labour, and then to point out 
numerous and consoling reasons that lead us to hope 
for the increase and the prosperity of the Catholic 
missions In China. 

The reputation of the Chinese, extremely bad in 
Europe, Is particularly so In England, even among 
the Catholics who acquiesce in the universal opinion 
that in such a land as China, missionary labour Is 
almost useless, as the natives of the Celestial Empire 
are Incapable of conversion, and that those who are 
neophytes are no better than baptized pagans, posses- 
sing little faith and many vices. The missionaries are 
only to be pitied, wasting their time, and often shedding 



6 ANOTHER CHINA. 

their blood, in such unprofitable labour. Consequently, 
on the strength of this widely spread delusion, it is no 
longer the fashion to assist the Chinese missions, and 
alms are bestowed elsewhere. 

These false ideas about China do not proceed from 
the Catholic missionaries, among whom there is at 
present but one English-speaking priest, but rather 
from the traders, the diplomatists, and the Protestant 
ministers of Great Britain, all forming a numerous 
legion in China. The laity, drawing their conclusions 
from certain Chinese defects, as they see them, imagine 
that the introduction of religion is perfectly useless ; 
while the ministers consider that if their labours be not 
as successful as they desire, the Catholic missionaries 
cannot possibly succeed either— a dangerous and 
utterly illogical conclusion based upon very debateable 
premises. ^ 

Europeans frequently speak of China without real 
knowledge of it, and those who write about the country 
say that they can confidently support their opinions 
as they have lived and travelled in China ; whereas the 
truth is they all live beside not among the Chinese, at 
the treaty ports, which are real sinks of iniquity, 
attracting the wicked and corrupting the good. Those 
who judge of the country by these wretched specimens, 
are committing the error of ah uno disce omnes. 
Moreover, the intercourse between Europeans and 
Chinese at the ports is by no m.eans close. Many only 



FALSE NOTIONS ABOUT CHINA. 7 

see the Chinamen in the streets, others draw their 
ideas of them from the newspapers, which criticize people 
who should not be confounded with the Chinese nation. 
The Consuls visit the Mandarins, who, under a deceitful 
politeness, conceal the utmost cunning, bad faith and dis- 
like. The traders and Custom House officials are in daily 
contact with sharpers, expert in every kind of deception. 
The Consuls declare the Chinese to be a nation of liars 
and knaves ; and the traders add that they are all born 
thieves from the highest to the lowest ; an impression 
strengthened by the lack of good servants who are 
rarely obtained, while the others have to be watched 
as if they were enemies. The contact with western 
civilization seems to turn the heads of the ordinary 
Chinese, who imitate European defects in addition to 
their own vices. Nowhere are there men so absurd, 
more arrogant and insupportable, than certain celestials 
in foreign employment. The Europeans, who travel up 
the rivers in boats and cross the mountains in palan- 
quins, return with the mistaken notion that they have 
seen the Chinese at home, have studied them well, and 
know them thoroughly; while in reality, not under- 
standing the language, they have collected their 
information from their servants, or rather as much as 
these men may have chosen to give them. Seeing 
China in this fashion, their knowledge must be more 
superficial than exact, as they can only judge by the 
exterior, and not by the interior life of the Chinese, 



8 ANOTHER CHINA. 

*' You may paint a bear," says the Chinaman, *' but 
you can only paint his coat, not his bones ; you may 
recognise a man's face, but you cannot know his 
heart." To understand people you must mix and live 
with them. 

Moreover, there are two distinct Chinas, the official 
China composed of literati and Mandarins, and the 
China of private individuals. The first deserves all the 
reproaches heaped upon it ; while the second, along- with 
considerable defects, possesses many good qualities. 
It is, however, a common mistake to confound both 
these divisions, and to impute to the entire nation the 
vices and abuses of its Government. Although the 
Chinese code of law is remarkable for its wisdom 
and its equity, it is a mere collection of beautiful 
maxims, as all legislation is left to the sweet will of 
corrupt Mandarins, who make a regular traffic of 
justice. It should be considered that if these men do 
enrich themselves at the expense of the public, they are 
wretchedly paid, and when they visit their chiefs, or ^o 
to Pekin, they must in their turn bring a good sum to 
their superiors. Meanwhile the Chinese, while stoically 
enduring these exactions, heartily despise the Mandarins 
and their satellites, who are really responsible for the 
abuses that so forcibly strike Europeans. The China- 
man is supple and practical, and he calculates the 
consequences of every undertaking ; he knows that 
violence always prevails over justice, so instead of 



FALSE NOTIONS ABOUT CHINA. 9 

launching boldly on the open sea, he prefers to tack 
along the coast, and to avoid as much as he can the 
Mandarins and their courts. **Cedo no rompo " is his 
motto. 

Then there is a general inclination among the 
Europeans to sneer at the primitive ways of the 
Chinese, whom they consider an ignorant, obstinate, 
and stationary race, who will not advance with the 
times, and who presume to ridicule European customs. 
Infatuated with their own superiority, the Europeans 
are often blind to the good qualities of the Celestials, 
whom they offend by displaying open contempt of the 
natives and their habits ; while, on the other hand, the 
sad samples of our civilization often seen at the ports, 
are not likely to excite in the minds of the natives 
respect or admiration for modern progress. 

The Chinese are heathens who have not had eighteen 
centuries of Christianity to civilize them ; but it must be 
admitted that with all their errors and vices, they have 
not fallen as low as other nations. For instance, many 
of the reproaches addressed by St. Paul to the Romans 
would not be brought by him against the inhabitants of 
China were he now to visit it. We may go further, 
and say that the corruption existing in China is less 
deep-seated and less visible than in certain of our 
western cities, the scandal of which would bring a 
blush to the cheek of a Chinaman who is deemed to be 
so wicked. 



lO 



ANOTHER CHINA* 



Such are the chief prejudices against China, current 
among Europeans, who owing to their very education 
and civilization, and to the prevailing mania of compar- 
ing pagans with Christians, are hardly competent to 
offer an unbiased opinion about the Chinese nation as 
it really exists. 




A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES, n 



IIL 

A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES-^ 

With its narrow and crowded streets and its 160,000 
inhabitants, the City of Ning-Po, where Monseigneur 
Reynaud has his residence, is one of the original five 
treaty ports opened to the world after the erroneously 
styled '' Opium War." It is a Chinese military strong- 
hold, surrounded by high walls five miles in circumference, 
whose granite blocks are in tolerable preservation, but 
partially concealed by luxuriant jessamin and honey- 
suckle. Ning-Po, or *' the city that gives peace to the 
waves," situated on the River Yung at its junction with 
another stream, is really twelve miles inland from the 
mouth of the river, which is protected near the sea in 
Chinese fashion by a smaller walled township, Chin-hai 
(Defence of the Sea), while a monastery on a rock in the 
river, and an old castle on a steep hill, are fortified by 
batteries to overawe the pirates who infest the seas and 
magnificent rivers of the Middle Empire. The City of 
Ning-Po is noted for its beautiful wood-carving, and for 



1 For this Chapter Monseigneur Reynaud is not responsible except 
for the statistics relating to Tche-Kiang. 



12 ANOTHER CHINA, 

gorgeous pageants occasionally held in the streets in 
honour of the Dragon, which is a corrupted repre- 
sentation of the ancient serpent-worship prevalent 
among the Turanian race from which the Celestials 
descend. There is no doubt that the Chinese do worship 
devils and are often possessed by them. In the terrible 
massacre, in 1895, of the self-sacrificing Irish Protestant 
missionaries, the Rev. Robert, and Mrs. Stewart, with 
their companions, the Vegetarians wrote on sheets 
stolen from their victims, " The Dragon will conquer 
the foreigners' God."^ But if Catholic missionaries in 

1 As we shall find it a duty to pass some severe criticisms upon 
the Protestant missions and missionaries in China, it is pleasant to 
be able to pay a tribute to the beautiful life and character of an 
Irishman of whom his own child said, " Father never liked to be 
praised." However, we may mention that Mr. and Mrs. Stewart 
devoted themselves for nineteen years to the conversion of the 
Chinese in Fuh-Kien, a province larger than England, and adjoin- 
ing Tche-Kiang. Mrs. Stuart, remarkable for the facility and 
purity with which she sp©ke the language, was of the greatest 
assistance to her husband in his work, to which both were so eagerly 
devoted that they offered their lives to God for the salvation of the 
Chinese. The same spirit of unselfishness animated their young 
daughter, when on that day of death she risked her life and was 
severely wounded, in order to save her little sister and brother; and 
the poor Irish nurse was killed while she tried to save the baby 
from the assassins. The rest knelt in prayer, while the Vegetarians 
plundered their rooms ; and when the final moment came, one of 
them cried out: "Girls, never mind, we are all going home 
together ; ' ' and with these simple words ringing in their ears, they 
received their reward. The survivor of these ladies. Miss Flora 
Codrington, who escaped with terrible wounds, said : " She felt no 
pain, and she is sure the others did not ; she felt only a thrill of joy 
to think they would all soon be in glory together." — Robert and 
Louisa Stewart, Mary E. Watson, pp. 144, 212, 203, 216. — The 
Dublin University Missionary Magazine, October, 1895, P- ^S, — ^ 
(Editor's Note 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES, 13 

larger numbers go to assist their brethren upon the 
Chinese missions, they will by their labours uproot 
eventually this ancient idolatry concealed under many 
specious forms ; and they will convince numerous Chinese 
that their Dragon has long been conquered by the holy 
Mother of God, who by her co-operation with her 
Divine Son, in the redemption of mankind, has crushed 
its head (Gen chap, iii., v. 15). 

The diocese of Tche-Kiang ("the crooked river") 
although it be the smallest of the eighteen provinces 
of China, contains 60,000 square miles, with a popula- 
tion probably over 23,000,000.^ Before the Taiping 
rebellion, which was suppressed by General Gordon, 
this region was known to be the most densely populated 
in the world, until famine and epidemics diminished its 
number of 500 or 600 to the square mile.^ Tch^-Kiang, 
remarkable in many localities for its lovely mountain 
scenery, abounds in mulberry groves and silk worms, 
which form such a great industry, and the land, espe- 
cially round Ning-Po, is generally fertile and well 
irrigated by canals, with numerous villages in every 
direction, frequently visited by the devoted Sisters of 
Charity. 

Tch6-Kiang was, in 1551, portion of the diocese of 



1 In 1886, according to Father Werner, S.J., the population 
comprised 8,100,000. This appears to be a misprint. — Atlas des 
Missions CathoUques. 

^ Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, Asia, vol. i. 
By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. 1896. 



H ANOTHER CHINA. 

Macao, the Portuguese settlement near Canton, but in 
the next century it was made a Vicariate Apostolic with 
three other districts (1659). Thirty-five years later we 
find Tche-Kiang a vicariate in itself, until 1790- 1830, 
when it was joined with that of Kiang-si. In 1846, 
these vicariates were separated again under different 
bishops, and there has been no subsequent change in 
this division. In Tche-Kiang the missionaries are 
chiefly Lazarists or Vincentians, and in 1896 there were 
in the vicariate 10,419 Catholics, i bishop, 13 European 
and 10 native missionaries, and 5 native theological 
students, among a population presumed to be over 
23,000,000 heathens and 5,359 Protestants. There are 
35 Sisters of Charity, 29 Virgins of Purgatory, and 
38 Catechists, including schoolmasters and mistresses. 
The Sisters of Charity in the province of Tche-Kiang 
have the care of a large number of hospitals, orphanages, 
and similar institutions. They courageously compete 
with the Protestant ministers, some of whom being 
physicians also have hospitals, and visit the sick in 
their homes, striving by this powerful means to push on 
their own work. The Sisters, comprehending the far- 
reaching consequences of this enterprise, carry out their 
visitations of the sick with the utmost zeal and success, 
and even influential families, including those of the 
Mandarins, apply to them for their remedies and care. 
The Sisters can go where they please, and are invited 
into the houses of rich and poor, where they nurse an 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES, 15 

immense number of pagans, and baptize every year 
over 3,000 dying children. Even the ferrymen will 
refuse taking a fee from the Sisters, so much are they 
loved at Ning-Po and elsewhere. 

Such is a brief preliminary outline of the Catholic 
propaganda as it exists in a single diocese of China. 
From this basis, it will be possible to calculate in some 
way the vast work which is carried on throughout the 
Empire, in which there are (in China proper without 
including the Dependencies) 27 such districts, each with 
its own bishop and staff of clergy, besides four districts 
which are differently organized. The diocese of Tche- 
Kiang may be considered in a certain sense as a typical 
one, inasmuch as it stands midway, in numerical impor- 
tance, between the very large and the comparatively 
small divisions. It may be useful here to give a few 
statistics relating to the largest Vicariate, that of Kiang- 
Nan (Nan-Kin), which is under the Society of Jesus. 
In the year 1892, it boasted no less than 96,382 Catholics, 
with 128 priests, 32 seminarists, and 177 nuns. There 
is one other Jesuit mission, that of South Pe-Tche-li, 
which is smaller than Kiang-nan, but is yet among the 
most flourishing dioceses. There are six Lazarist 
missions, including that of Northern Pe-Tche-li or Pekin, 
and the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, are 
also well represented. Most of the missions are French ; 
others hail from Belgium, Italy, and Holland. 

Our readers will probably like to see some statistics 



1 6 ANOTHER CHINA. 

relating to the whole country. It is agreed by all the 
authorities that the Catholics are enormously in excess 
of the Protestants, but when we come to decide upon 
the actual numbers of the former, we find the evidence 
beyond a certain point difficult to deal with. It has 
been asserted ^ that the whole Catholic population 
exceeds 2,000,000. This statement, if taken to apply 
to the Chinese Empire, would be an exaggeration ; but 
as a matter of fact we have been informed that it was 
meant to include Tonquin (which has certainly nearly 
a million Catholics ^), and in this sense it is possibly true. 
But are there even a million Catholics at present in 
China ? There appears to be considerable evidence 
that they approach, even if they do not reach, that 
number. In the first place we have to this eff'ect the 
statement of Mr. Martin, a Protestant, who was 
formerly President of the College belonging to the 
Tsung-li-yamen, or^ Chinese Board for Foreign Aff"airs, 
and who is presumably well informed. We mention 
this evidence first, because some Protestant authorities 
on the subject ^ have ventured to unduly minimize the 
numbers of native Catholics, making out that they do 
not amount to more than half a million. Their desire 
to prove this is not to be altogether wondered at, if we 



1 See FreeiJiaii's jfournal, Dublin, April 3rd, 1897. 
'^Dublin Review, April, 1897, p. 257. Article by E. H. Parker 
(who is, we believe, a Protestant). 

^ See A Cycle of Cathay, by W. A. P. Martin, chap. xv. 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES. 17 

consider that the Protestant missions have not, in spite 
of their gigantic efforts, met with very remarkable 
success. As to the causes of this we shall have more 
to say, but as to the fact we may again quote Mr. Martin, 
who puts the Protestant converts at fifty, or at most 
sixty, thousand. On this subject Miss Gordon Gumming 
in her charming Wmidermgs in China (1885), re- 
marks ^ : — 

"The combined converts of all the Protestant missions 
in this province of Tche-Kiang may number about 
2,000 ; that is to say, one out of every 10,000 of the 
population. The proportion of Protestant Ghristians 
in the whole Empire is estimated at one in 35,000." 

To return to the point we are discussing, unfortu- 
nately we have not been able to see any Gatholic 
statistics on the subject which are quite satisfactory. 
The only authority we have been able to consult for the 
whole Ghinese Empire is the Madras Catholic Directory 
for the current year, and it is evidently not very reliable. 
M. Groffier, in compiling his valuable Altas des Missions 
Catholiques^ was obliged to refer to the same authority, 
and, besides pointing out other mistakes, he complains 
in a footnote that the Directory was so carelessly drawn 
up that the totals given at the foot of the various 
columns in several cases do not nearly correspond with 



1 Vol. ii., chap, xxiv., p. 52. 

2 Published, in 1886, at Strasburg. See p. 



26. 



i8 ANOTHER CHINA, 

the items supposed to be included in them : and we have 
detected in the latest edition several evident errors of 
numeration. Moreover, with regard to China the com- 
pilers of the Directory state that no returns have been 
received from the V^icariates : still they proceed to give 
statistics, without saying from what source they are 
drawn. Hence, we cannot attach much importance to 
thd statement that there are at present in China proper 
not more than 550,000 Catholics. In Kiang-Nan there 
are certainly over 100,000; in Tsu-Chuan (according to 
Mr. Parker) 80,000 ; in Pe-tche-li, 3 Vicariates, includ- 
ing Pekin, well over 100,000;^ Fou-Kien, though stated 
in the Directory to have only 34,000 Catholics, has, in 
reality, according to a priest who has lived in China, and 
who is by no means disposed to exaggerate, ^ nearly 
60,000. These are, of course, the better and the more 
flourishing districts ; but what shall we think of the state- 
ment that in Tch6-Kiang there are only 7,730 Catholics, ^ 
whereas we have the printed returns from Monseigneur 
Reynaud for every individual mission in his diocese, 
proving the real number to be (as above stated), 
10,419? 

1 In the Jesuit Vicariate of the South -East District alone, there 
were, in the year 1893, 40.598 Catholics. Letter from Rev. Father 
Becker, Superior of the Mission, in Lettres de jfersey, vol. xiii., p. 57 

2 The Rev. Maurice Watson, O.P., who wrote a letter in the 
Tablet in April, 1897, ^.nd has kindly supplied a few statistics for the 
present work. 

3 In the Directory for 1885, the number is stated as 12,000, which 
is ^Iso very incorrect, 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES. 19 

If we might hazard a guess ^ as to the actual truth of 
the question, probably we might place the number ot 
CathoHcs in China proper at three quarters of a million.^ 
If we compare this number with that of the total 
population of China it will appear small enough. It is, 
however, necessary to bear in mind that the united 
numbers of the CathoHcs of the w^orld do not, even 
according to the largest computation, reach anything 
like the 386,000,000^ which is said by the best authorities ^ 
to be the population of China. 

If we take a different term of comparison we find the 
number of Catholics in China will not appear to be 
so insignificant. For instance, in the year 1885, ^ the 
Catholics of England and Wales were only about 
1,300,000 fin a population of 26,000,000). In the whole 
of Australia and Polynesia they were stated by the 
same authority to be but 672,000 : while in the whole 
Continent of Africa (if we exclude the Portuguese 
settlements of the South West Coast, which number 
according to a Report of the Propaganda, about a 
million souls), the rest do not much exceed a half 
million, which is certainly less than the total for China 
proper. 

There is still one vital point to be considered, and 

^ In case a second edition of this little work is required, we hope 
to be able to make an authoritative statement on this subject, 

2 Compendium of Geography and Travel, Asia, vol, i., 1896 
A. H. Keane, F.R.G.R. 

'^ Atlas des Missions Catholiques, p. 12. 



20 ANOTHER CHINA. 

that is the rate at which Catholicity, in spite of all the 
drawbacks, has hitherto been spreading in the Celestial 
Empire. Here again we can give evidence which is con- 
soling enough. Monseigneur Reynaud states it as his 
opinion that within the last fifty years the number of 
Catholics in China has been nearly doubled ; and he 
anticipates that the rate of increase will be even more 
rapid in the future. As far as our statistics throw any 
light on the subject, this statement carries with it a 
good deal of probability. In Tche-Kiang, during the 
year from June, 1895, to June, 1896, the number of 
adult baptisms, excluding those in danger of death, is 
given as 406, and the number of well-disposed Catechu- 
mens as 1790. In Kiang-nan the baptisms of adults 
recorded for the year 189 1-2 was 1,319. In North 
Pe-tche-li it is stated to have been about 1,000, and in 
Su-Tchuen several thousand. Thus it is computed 
that the annual nurfiber of conversions to the faith 
is, perhaps, rather more than 10,000. In these numbers, 
those who receive baptism at death^ whether adults or 
infants, are not included ; and the good work done 
in that way by the missionaries can hardly be computed. 
This work is not intended as an exhaustive study of 
statistics, and w^e will not prosecute the subject further. 
We must apologise if the numbers we have been able 
to give are in some cases rather vague ; but we think 
we have said enough to convince the reader of the 
importance of the Catholic works going on in the 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES, 2I 

Chinese Empire. In any case the above facts and 
figures seem to prove that the Catholic missionaries in 
China, as in Hindustan, succeed far better in making 
some impression upon the hard surface of oriental 
society than do their Protestant rivals. But is this so 
very surprising? No, for coming eighteen centuries 
ago from the East, the Catholic religion must be more 
congenial to Orientals than the contradictory creeds of 
a modern religion, which is so deeply imbued with 
European ideas, that it is at complete variance with 
those of the conservative Asiatics, who in thought and 
in custom are much the same as their ancestors in the 
far-off days which were illumined by the coming of 
'' the Light of the World." 




^^ ANOTHER CHINA. 



IV, 



OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF 
THE FAITH, 

If the Chinese be not so black as they are painted, how 
is it that they are not yet converted in spite of all 
missionary efforts ? It is true that China is still very 
far from conversion on account of its immense extent, 
its enormous population, and the many obstacles 
preventing the advance of the Gospel. The Chinese 
missions have passed through the fiery crucible of 
violent persecutions, during which the churches have 
been destroyed, the faithful exiled or imprisoned, 
charitable works annihilated, and the missionaries 
dispersed with their flocks in all directions. This want 
of priests was the finishing stroke, as it was impossible 
for the converts to persevere without instruction, and 
deprived of all religious succours, excepting in the few 
remote villages where the missionaries hid themselves 
at the risk of their lives. At present we still have too 
few clergy on the missions, but by reckoning the number 
of places occupied by Catechumens, and by a study of 
the figures we have given above, it is easily seen that 
far from being in statu quo^ a very decided advance has 
been made within the last fifty years. 



OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF THEfFAlTH. 2^ 

Independently of the obstacles raised by the effects of 
original sin, poverty is a great hindrance to conversion 
among the Chinese, who are struggling day by day to 
keep the wolf of hunger from the door. In many 
districts cultivation of opium has taken the place of 
the less lucrative rice-fields. Now the Christians are 
permitted neither to plant the poppy-seed, nor to sell the 
drug, and must seek some other employment, which is 
not easy in China where there is such competition in 
every trade. Though they may be convinced of the 
truth of our religion, these poor people hesitate to 
embrace a creed which may endanger their very means 
of existence. 

Superstitious practices that enter, into every detail of 
.a Chinaman's life, from his cradle to his grave, form 
another great obstacle to conversion. To many Chinese 
these superstitions are, at most, local customs, practised 
merely out of human respect, while to others who are 
innately religious, they are of the greatest importance. 
Then there are the devotees, who have acquired esteem 
by their piety, their long pilgrimages, giving money to 
build pagodas, fasting for twenty, thirty, or even fifty 
years, during which time they have never smoked 
tobacco, or tasted wine, fish, or meat, and have sub- 
sisted upon vegetables, spices, and tea. These people 
find it very hard to renounce all their so-called merits, 
and to be convinced that they have been in error, and 
must begin their lives afresh. To these scruples is 



2i A^fOTHER CHINA. 

added the terrible fear of appearances— literally, *'the 
worship of the face " — that somewhat resembles human 
respect in Europe, but its effects are far stronger, more 
g-eneral, and more tyrannical in China. To lose one's 
countenance among- the Chinese means to become an 
object of ridicule, to lose caste, and in certain cases 
some Celestials would much prefer death to this 
humiliation. Now to become a Christian, a Chinese 
convert has to brave this dreadful ordeal, to abandon 
his old customs, his ancestral worship, to expose himself 
to general contempt, as a traitor who has forsaken the 
creed of *' the Middle Empire " for a foreign — a European 
religion. But what the convert feels much more is the 
sacrifice he must make of ancestor-worship, which is 
so profoundly rooted in China, that several have con- 
sidered it as the chief obstacle to the conversion of the 
Chinese. In theory and in practice, filial piety holds the 
first rank among th^r virtues ; and there can be no 
greater insult, even to the lowest and most worthless 
Chinaman, than to call him an undutiful son. Ancestor- 
worship is an act of filial piety, by which children 
render divine honours to the memory of their deceased 
parents. Neglect of this duty by the Christians exposes 
them to the violent anger of their families and neigh- 
bours, which fact naturally does not encourage timid 
people to become converts. This erroneous and 
superstitious practice, however, makes the Catechumens 
adopt and cherish more readily the devotion to the 



OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF THE FAlTa 25 

souls in Purgatory, and this is no doubt one of the 
strongest attractions which they find in our faith as 
compared with the Protestant religion. Other manifold 
prejudices against our religion also deter people from 
approaching the missionaries. 

The lies and calumnies spread by the literati and the 
Mandarins, absurd though they be, do produce some 
effect, and the silliest invention seems always to gain 
the greatest publicity and credit. Nearly everywhere 
the missionaries are accused of kidnapping children 
to use their eyes and hearts in medicines, and many 
are the Catechumens, who under the influence of this 
ridiculous notion have long deferred their conversion. 
Some of the Mandarins really are sincere in their 
suspicions of the motives that bring the missionaries to 
China. Being Pagans, they cannot comprehend that 
these priests come solely to save souls without any 
secret motive of self-interest. Again, the Catholic 
missions being under the protection of the French 
minister, the Mandarins imagine that the missionaries 
are political agents for the subversion of China. 
Therefore they entertain a blind hatred of the 
Europeans, who by their presence desecrate the sacred 
soil of China, and by their teaching trouble the shade of 
Confucius, preaching a doctrine he did not teach, and a 
religion he did not know — a religion, moreover, whose 
ethics might, by exposing their ignorance, pride, and 
bad faith, undermine their own power. Unable to 



^6 ANOTTHER CHINA, 

expel the missionaries, they have recourse to the vilest 
accusations and falsehoods, which have been the main- 
springs of the riots, which were instigated with great 
impartiality against both Catholic and Protestant 
missionaries alike. On this subject, P^re Favier, of 
Pekin, once remarked — ** In this respect, at all events, 
' nous sommes tous dans le meme bateau,' " 

Left to themselves the people do not suspect us ; they 
have positively to be roused by cunning ringleaders, 
who excite their indignation by wicked calumnies, and 
urge them to such deplorable excesses. Although 
liberty of conscience has been imposed by the Powers 
upon the Chinese Government, it is not sincerely carried 
out by the authorities, who never protect the Christians 
against ill treatment. While professing the greatest 
civility to the missionaries, the Mandarins endeavour to 
persuade them to live at the Treaty-ports, where they 
would be much safer than among the wicked people 
inland, who occasion annoyance and vexations which 
they, the Mandarins, are unable to avert. 

A Chinese mob, even a small one, excited suh rosa by 
the Mandarins is by no means pleasant company, and 
occasionally mission-stations are liable to sudden visita- 
tions, as in the instance about to be related. At Tai- 
tao-leou, in the Vicariate of Kiang-nan, on the 5th 
August, 1894, a band of twenty-one rioters burst into 
the mission-station, and seizing the Purveyor, Lieou-sin- 
chan, an excellent catechist, they tied him to a tree with 



OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF THE FAITH. 27 

his own pigtail, and beat him severely, demanding money 
(silver ingots), and as he had none to give they wounded 
him terribly. Leaving him for dead, they attacked the 
schoolmaster and two other men, while the pupils ran 
to hide themselves. The whole establishment was 
plundered of clothing, bedding, and money belonging to 
the masters and scholars, and in revenge for finding so 
little of any value, the rioters smashed doors, windows, 
crockery, chapel candlesticks and statues. They also 
intended to torture their victims, had they not been put 
to flight by the sound of firearms outside the house, 
which, however, did not prevent one miscreant from 
giving a great blow to the wounded catechist, exclaim- 
ing, ' * Why do you follow such a religion ? " which showed 
sufficiently by what spirit he and his villainous comrades 
were actuated. 

China is now open to the Europeans, and the mis- 
sionaries may just take their chance. The customs, 
the telegraphic service, and steamboats are under the 
direction of European laymen, all anxious to enrich 
themselves with Chinese money ; and often leading 
lives which redound but little to the honour of religion. 
The traders only seek to inundate China with their 
wares, and all the foreign governments are intent on 
increasing each its own influence with that of China, to 
the detriment of the other Powers similarly engaged 
in this industrial conflict. The Russians on the northern 
frontier, the French in Tonquin, the English in Burmah, 



2^ Another china, 

not reckoning the covetous eyes of Germans and other 
nations, can scarcely inspire the Chinese or their 
Government with any affection for Europeans, who by 
their disdain and contempt still further alienate the 
Celestials who come in contact with them. It is need- 
less to mention the heavy indemnities the Powers 
impose, whenever Europeans, laymen or clerics, are 
injured in their persons, or have their property destroyed 
by the Chinese mobs. It may be objected that the 
Chinese should be able to distinguish the missionaries 
who come to China to do them good from the 
interested traders or Powers, who only seek their own 
profit. . Moreover, were not the Chinese the first in the 
year 1893, to ask for the establishment of the Catholic 
hierarchy in their Empire. 

To this objection it must be answered, that although 
the Chinese perceive clearly enough the difference 
between the missionaries and other Europeans, yet they 
confound them all in the same reprobation, and some 
years ago the missionaries were the people who had to 
suffer most from calumnies, and the incendiary fires 
provoked by them. As far as the Catholic hierarchy 
is concerned, it certainly was no feeling of affection for 
religion that prompted the Chinese, but simply the 
desire to rid themselves ot the French or German pro- 
tectorate. What the Chinaman really wanted, was to 
deprive the ^European powers ot this pretext to extort 
concessions from China as indemnity for wrongs inflicted 



OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD OF THE FAITH. 29 

on their own European subjects or on Christians. 
Moreover the clauses of the concordat between China 
and Rome proved that no religious zeal influenced the 
Chinese, who were inserting conditions that would not 
be accepted ; such as toleration of Chinese rites, and 
respect for other creeds and their practices.^ 

I have now briefly indicated some of the greater 
difficulties we have to contend with, and we may pass on, 
for the present, especially as this subject will necessarily 
recur, being so intimately bound up with the subject we 
have in hand. It might have been expected that I 
should here lay great stress on the action of the Bonzes 
or native priests, in interfering with the spread 
o Christianity. Have they no serious propaganda to 
oppose to ours ? This question is soon dealt with. 
The Bonzes, as I know them in the Province of Tch^- 
Kiang, ought not to inspire us with any serious 
apprehensions. Their bad reputation injures their 
influence, and their laziness interferes with their zeal. 
Their vocation is simply a trade, and they live by the 
altar, as a workman lives by his tools. Their services 
are indeed believed in and paid for, but their conduct 
wins them much contempt. I ask leave, then, simply to 
lay them on one side, and to pass on to the consideration 
of a more serious embarrassment. 



Pages 58, 59, vol. xiii., Letters de Jersey. 



30 ANOTHER CHINA. 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 

The Protestants in China are very far from imitating- 
the dolce far niente of the Bonzes. They are three 
times more numerous than the Catholic missionaries, 
they have plenty of means, they have also the prestige 
of their nationality — most of them coming from England, 
which is considered as a faithful and generous ally by 
the Chinese, who call the Protestant creed ''the English 
reHgion." 

It has been a question whether these three advantages 
of the Protestants have been injurious to the Catholic 
cause. Some missionaries think there is nothing to be 
feared, that the accusations of the Protestant ministers 
against Catholicity have never prevented any real 
conversions, and that in drawing souls away from 
paganism they are really opening the way for the 
Catholic missions. Others are of opinion that the 
ministers can injure their work in several ways ; first by 
their attacks and their contradictions, which make the 
Chinese remark, *' Since the Europeans cannot agree 
about relig-ion, it is better to keep to our own," Then 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS, 31 

we find that converts who have been Protestants find 
more difficulty in implicitly accepting- Catholic dogma 
than those who have been heathens. Although the 
Catholic priests are readily distinguished from the 
ministers by all who are accustomed to see them, they 
are often confounded together by the general mass of the 
Chinese, and I must confess I have not been flattered to 
overhear them say in some new locality, *' Here comes 
the unquaytse (the European devil) who sells books. 
Why has he not brought his wife ? " 

With their knowledge of the language and con- 
stant communication with Chinese of every rank, the 
Protestant missionaries are better able than the Consuls, 
the Custom officials, or the traders, to present us with 
a fair description of the Chinamen. Consequently they 
do not speak so badly of them, and some even praise 
the Chinese to a certain extent. Yet, notwithstanding 
their distribution of Bibles, their schools, the money they 
spend so liberally, the men they employ, and the labours 
in which they certainly do not spare themselves, the 
ministers are far from being successful. If we deduct 
from their proselytes, those who are attracted by wages, 
such as colporteurs, schoolmasters, preachers, servants, 
and other employes ; if we take again from the number 
those whose faith is strengthened by pecuniary assist- 
ance, and who find they can serve their own interest by 
the practice of ** the English religion ;" and then if we 
add to these the people serving two masters, who go to 



32 ANOTHER CHINA, 

church on Sundays, and keep up the observance of some 
superstitious practice during the week, what a great 
reduction would be made in the already small numbers 
of their converts. 

It is not intended in these pages to impeach the good 
works, much less the intentions, of anyone, but merely 
to state a few facts respecting the Protestant missions 
from a Catholic point of view ; and we may perhaps be 
the means of rendering them some service in pointing 
out the weak points in their system. In the diocese of 
Tch^-Kiang are the chief headquarters of the very 
numerous Protestant sects, which are to be met every- 
where in China. According to their own account, there 
are over 60,000 converts, divided among the three 
branches of the Episcopal Church, nine sects of Presby- 
terians, six sects of Methodists, two sects of Baptists, 
and some others less known ; ^ and all these different 
denominations teach their own convictions, which often 
clash with those of their comrades on these missions. 
With the exception of the Anglicans, who are usually 
gentlemen who have had a University career, anyone 
(no matter what his previous employment might have 
been) can become a minister, and to quote the words of 
Sir Henry Norman, a Protestant writer ; " both men 
and women among Protestant missionaries are often 
quite unfit even to teach at home, and are not too 



1 The Far East, chap, xx., page 306. Sir Henry Norman 



K. 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS, 33 

hardly described by the phrase which has been applied 
to them — * Ignorant declaimers in bad Chinese.' " 
Sir Henry Norman, while admitting that there are among 
the Protestant ministers " men of the highest character 
and devotion, upon whose careers no criticisms can be 
passed," says that there can be no doubt that the 
Catholic missionaries *' enjoy on the whole far more 
consideration from the natives as well as from foreigners, 
and the result of their work is beyond question much 
greater."^ 

Without then attempting to decide how far we are 
fettered by the presence of the Protestant missions, it 
is very necessary for me to give an account of their 
position and the progress they are making, if only 
for this reason. It has already been indicated that in 
the minds of many persons in Europe there is some 
tendency to confound our cause with that of the Pro- 
testants, or at least to base an opinion as to the religious 
position of the Chinese upon the reports which the 
Protestants supply. 

Many of these ministers coming from England supply 
their want of theological science by a mystic enthusiasm 
which leads them into various delusions. On their 
arrival in China, they find no tradition to guide them, 
no direction to assist their inexperience. They come to 
replace missionaries who are going away ; and in a 

^ The Far East. Sir Henry Norman. 



34 ANOTHER CHINA. 

place where all is so strange, so different from Europe, 
left completely to themselves, these young men, with all 
the good will in the world, must be liable to the most 
discouraging mistakes and errors of judgment. With 
an English newspaper we may say, if they are not to 
be blamed, they are at least greatly to be pitied. 

The salient differences in their doctrines which are 
both vague and anomalous, are not lightly accepted by 
minds so positive, subtle, and developed as those of the 
Chinese, whose keen intelligence can instantly detect 
flaws that may long evade our attention. The incoher- 
ence of the Protestant creeds, the conflicting instructions 
of the ministers, are too clearly demonstrated to escape 
the logical Chinaman. Even the pastors lament this 
serious obstacle, and in their assembly at Shang-hai, 
1890, they were obliged to sacrifice some of their special 
doctrines, and to turn their labours more in the direc- 
tion of schools, ho^itals, and translation of books. 
At present they have widened their sphere of action 
by a crusade against wine, tobacco, and women's small 
feet. To this last objection a Chinaman at Ning-Po 
replied in the newspaper that there were other more 
necessary reforms needed, chiefly as to the importation of 
opium, which should be first checked, and also in the 
custom of tight-lacing, which they declared to be more 
injurious to the European ladies than tying the feet is 
to their own. These questions may gratify philan- 
thropists, but they will never convert the Chinese. 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS, 35 

The absence of unity of belief, the rejection of 
authority in favour of private judgment, are radical 
defects of Protestantism. Now this very principle of 
authority is everything to a Chinese, being the founda- 
tion-stone of family and social existence, and no people 
have more respect for absolute authority than the 
Celestials. A religion that rejects this vital principle 
can never be regarded in a serious light by the 
Chinaman. 

The ministers also shock the natives by their system 
of propaganda, which in many respects is in direct 
opposition to the local customs and etiquette of the 
country. For instance, the married pastors are more 
or less absorbed by the cares of family life, which 
naturally induces them to live as they do In Europe. 
They require comforts that keep them In places where 
they can be found, and they must have country residences 
in the summer, which entails interruption of divine 
service for that period, thereby exciting the envy of 
the European laity, who are unable to go to the moun- 
tains for fresh air in the hot season. The ministers 
must also walk out or sail in boats with their wives 
and children, and this appearance of husband and 
wife together In public is diametrically opposed to the 
etiquette of Chinese society. 

Another obstacle Is that of rendering their cause too 
familiar, by preaching on all occasions, Inviting way- 
farers Into their houses to hear a sermon, offering 



36 ANOTHER CHINA. 

Bibles to everyone they meet — with the result that the 
most awful parodies have been made by the heathens 
on this sacred volume. In order to excite curiosity, 
some of these missionaries will offer tracts, saying, 
** Here is Heaven for four cash" (pence). This is 
rather too cheap for the Chinese, who estimate things 
at their money value, and who have a proverb that 
" Good wares are not to be sold too cheap, as cheap 
articles are never really good. " The intention of the 
Protestant missionaries is good, but this exaggerated 
expression only lowers religion in the eyes of the 
Chinese. The attacks made by these sectarians upon 
the celibacy of the Catholic clergy do them much harm, 
as the heathens of this Empire hold virginity in high 
esteem, and cannot comprehend how men engaged in 
the married life can possibly be at the same time 
ministers of religion. Their hatred of Catholicity and 
their false accusations recoil upon themselves, as the 
pagans give us great credit for leaving all these calum- 
nies unnoticed. By their attacks upon the Virgin 
Mother of God, the ministers merely disgust the 
Chinese, who have such an exalted idea of their own 
mothers that a woman has no name, but is always 
known as the mother of her son, *'Lipa-am," 
*' Atching-am " — the mother of Lipa or Atching, 
Therefore, the devotion to Our Lady is readily under- 
stood by Catechumens ; and once a whole band of 
pagans, on hearing abuse of the Blessed Virgin, 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 37 

deserted the Protestant chapel, and came to the Catholic 
missionary to ask for baptism. 

These and other defects are the true reasons of the 
little success of Protestantism in China, and our cause 
should not be confounded with theirs, as we follow a 
very different road with very different results. We do 
not go to China to criticize manners or to destroy 
customs that are not at variance with Catholic doctrine, 
even though they be repugnant to western prejudice. 
The great aim set before our missionaries by Rome, the 
sole desire of their hearts, is to implant the knowledge 
of faith and charity in the souls of the Chinese. This 
is the polar star that directs their labours. Arriving 
in the country, instead of being abandoned to them- 
selves, they find a path traced out for them which aids 
their inexperience. Subject to a recognised authority 
that prevents them from being led astray by first 
impressions, it is not at their own expense, at their 
, at their own risk and peril, or by dint of groping their 
way through innumerable mistakes, that they learn to 
understand the natives and customs of their new country. 
From the commencement they are guided by the 
instruction of experienced men, and in this Chinese 
Empire, a perplexing labyrinth for many foreigners, 
they have only to follow, not to seek, the right path. 
Free from all ties of this world, having no family cares 
to distract their attention, they are at perfect liberty 
to follow their vocation, which is, like the Apostles, to 



38 ANOTHER CHINA. 

be all things unto all men, in order to gain souls to 
Jesus Christ. As the Son of God came on earth to 
save man, so the missionaries who continue His work, 
set aside their prejudices and conform themselves, as far 
as is allowable to the manners of the people they wish 
to convert. This being an essential condition to ensure 
success, the missionaries lead the life and wear the 
dress of the Chinese, so that there may be as little 
difference, and as few causes of distrust, between them 
and the people as possible, and a closeness of intercourse 
which will enable them to smooth away many difficulties, 
and to study and understand the good and bad qualities 
of the soil they have to cultivate. At the same time by 
their sacred calling they are able to discern the virtues 
and the vices of individuals ; they come in contact with 
families, and in this way they acquire knowledge of 
many a detail connected with the life of the people. 
The Chinese do not consider them as travellers or mere 
birds of passage, but as neighbours who speak the same 
language, and very often as dear friends living under 
the same roof. In one word, China is the adopted 
home in which the Catholic missionaries live and die, 
and which they love in spite of many privations and 
hardships, that are not as well known as the dangers 
of ill-treatment and murder, and yet are the great cause 
of the mortality that so rapidly thins the ranks of these 
zealous priests.-^ 

1 See the remarks on this subject by Baron Von Hubner, Ramble 
Round the World, vol. ii., page 425. (Ed. 1874.) 



PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS, 39 

Their very exceptional position, which, in some places 
such as Ning Po, g-ives them the rank of Mandarins, 
must g-ive more weight to their opinions, in so far as 
they are based upon a more correct judg-ment of the 
Middle Empire and its natives. 

We may append here the interesting remarks of 
Mr. Medhurst, English Consul at Shang-hal, and a 
Protestant, who says :^ *' It is the fashion now to com- 
plain of the Protestant missionaries, and to compare 
them in an unfavourable manner with their Roman 
colleagues ; a kind of parallel I shall avoid. The system 
of the Catholic missionaries is, from the first moment of 
their arrival, to advance as far as possible into the 
interior, to disguise themselves as Chinese, and to work 
with indefatigable ardour in the different stations 
occupied by the brethren for many years, if not for 
centuries. Their devotion is remarkable, their success 
astonishing ; and I am among those who think they 
have done, and are doing, a great deal of good. They 
strive to gain proselytes by means of education, a 
process necessarily slow, but of which the result, as 
regards the number and the solid nature of the conver- 
sions, is all the more satisfactory. In any town or 
village where there is a Catholic mission, one is sure to 
find a kernel of Christian families, in whom the faith 
has been transmitted from generation to generation ; 

1 The Foreigner in Far Cathay, published in the year 1872 



40 ANOTHER CHINA. 

and I have been often struck by the peace and look 
of respectability which one sees in these communities, 
especially when compared with the pagan Inhabitants 
around them." 

Considering the impartial and responsible character 
of this evidence, It would seem that Its importance 
can hardly be overrated. It is from the CathoHc 
missionaries that the diplomatic bodies receive the best 
and most reliable Information as to what is going on 
in the most Inaccessible parts of the empire, and it is 
evident that they are aware that no class of Europeans 
know China better. In the China Blue Book ^ the 
English Ambassador writing to Lord Granville, relating 
to Prince Kung's proclamation, remarks : — ** We shall 
learn from the Roman missionaries how far this pro- 
clamation will have been spread In the Interior." 



1 Blue Book, China, i., p. 122, published, relating to the massacres 
of Tien-tsin, in the year 1870 



A WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 41 



VL 
A WORD FOR THE CHINAMAR 

Having enumerated the vices of which the Chinese are 
accused, it is only fair to mention a few of their good 
qualities, which have been often praised by eminent 
Consuls, and by distinguished naval officers, who have 
spent much time in this country. The Chinese are 
intelligent, skilful, sober, hard-working, and patient. 
They are noted for their perseverance in every under- 
taking, and for the steady persistence shown on all 
occasions, in amassing small sums which they rightly 
consider as being a distinct improvement upon an empty 
purse. Their powers of endurance are equally remark- 
able in times of starvation, illness, or other privations, 
and it has been well said that the lower classes in China 
have positively reduced poverty to a science, ' so well 
do they know how to turn the most trifling article of 
food or material to some account. Again, a Celestial 
will never embitter or shorten his days by *' worry," 
that domestic fiend of the European. On account of 

^ Chinese Characteristics. Rev. Arthur Smith. 



42 ANOTHER CHINA. 

the enormous population and the immense space of 
ground occupied by cemeteries and tombs that can 
never be touched, there is no nation with more cause 
for anxiety as to the means of subsistence than the 
Chinese. So much also depends upon the absence of 
drought and disastrous inundations which are evils of 
too frequent occurrence in the Middle Empire. 

Notwithstanding poverty, which is the general lot, the 
Chinese are to be commended for their cheerfulness, 
even though it may arise from the principle of fatalism 
implanted in Orientals. Much faith is placed in good 
or bad luck, which to these heathens takes the place of 
Providence ; but no matter what they may suffer, these 
poor people stoically and cheerfully put into practice the 
saying, ** What cannot be cured must be endured." 

It could hardly be denied that the minds of the 
Chinese are very subtle, and their perceptions keen and 
prompt ; but as they are ignorant of many subjects, 
they are more superficial than profound in their con- 
clusions. However, they can be easily trained, and 
their aptitude for the practical side of things is a talent 
in itself. Even the children are more precocious than 
those in Europe, and they seem from a remarkably 
early age to develop strong bumps, as it were, of 
diplomatic and commercial instincts. Artistic work in 
China has an inimitable and original stamp of its own, 
which is visible in embroideries, porcelain, cloisonne, 
lacker, carvings, and jewellery, while at the same 



A WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 43 

time the Chinese will reproduce any article whatever — 
even to its flaws. 

Expert farmers, the Chinamen use the most primitive 
implements, by help of which, and their ingenious 
fertilizers, they can raise on productive land a rotation 
of crops the whole year round, which are kept free from 
slugs, crabs, and frogs, by the ducks and fowl reared 
by the Chinese for this purpose^ as well as for their 
subsequent appearance at table. The same simplicity 
prevails in the food, consisting chiefly of rice boiled in 
water, with various small dishes, to give a relish to this 
insipid standing dish, such as beans, peas, lentils, pre- 
pared in diff"erent ways, the best being a cheese or curd 
made of beans ; besides these pastries, young bamboo 
tops, carrots cooked in vegetable oils, salted eggs, the 
older the better, grubs, worms, snakes, and snails are 
also eaten, while on the sea coast the fare is enriched 
by fresh or dried fish, and jelly fishes. Cows being 
expensive to keep, milk and butter are not used, but 
pork, rats, cats, dogs, and animals who have died a 
natural death from disease, are included in the edibles 
of the far from squeamish Chinese, especially on grand 
occasions, such as wedding feasts, &c.^ Having a 
really extraordinary gift of economical cookery, a 
Chinaman will live where a European would starve. 
On the frugal fare of rice, fish, and pickled cabbage, 



^A Corner of Cathay A. M. Fielde 



44 ANOTHER CHINA. 

the coolies will carry heavy weights, make long and 
fatiguing journeys, and work extremely hard (when 
they choose) for daily wages, amounting to five pence 
of our money. ^ This ability to live on little, with such 
small wages, enables Chinese emigrants to compete 
successfully with the higher rate of labour elsewhere. 
Many, indeed, by their thrift, actually from such small 
beginnings, amass enough to set up shops and 
godowns, by which they realize fortunes, particularly 
those Chinese who have naturalized themselves as 
British subjects at Singapore, to avoid the universal 
'* squeeze" of the Mandarins, and the taxes of their 
Government at home.^ 

It should now be remarked that there is one European 
adage very little regarded by the Chinese, viz., that 
*' time is money." They cannot comprehend the fever- 
ish activity and impatience of the unquaytse (foreign 



1 Economy is practised by the Chinese in every other detail of 
their lives. Clothes seldom varying in fashion, are intended to last 
as long as possible ; therefore on good garments, there is scope for 
exquisite and artistic embroidery, which renders them heirlooms in 
the family. 

A. M. Fielde, tells us that " the patterns and material for 
clothing, are nearly the same for both sexes and all ages. The 
shape is such, that not a scrap of the fabric is wrastedin the cutting." 
The weight hangs upon the shoulders, and there is no compression 
or restriction of any muscle. While the costume is rriodest and 
protective, the amount of fabric used is small. Seven square yards 
or less, make a complete summer suit, and thirteen square yards, a 
complete winter suit, including all inner and outer garments worn 
by either man or woman " — A Corner of Cathay, ch. ii., pp. 19, 20. 

2 The Far East, ch. ii, p. 43. — Sir H. Norman. 



A WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 45 

devil) any more than a European admires their incredible 
ingenuity at deception. Calm and good-tempered, when 
not roused to fury or panic, the Chinese take everything 
as its comes ; and men as they are, and actuated by 
their philosophy of practical common sense, they are 
not disposed to be ruffled by disappointments. This 
apparent apathy, concealing powers of much passive 
resistance, renders the Chinese dangerous sophists, for 
possessing full control of their feelings, they are not 
carried away by heat of discussion, they avoid all weak 
points in their arguments, and discuss the most burning 
topics with a blandness and a subtle irony peculiar to 
themselves. According to the Chinese, well-bred people, 
if they do disagree, should explain themselves calmly 
and politely, while invective and threats (at which, 
however, the Celestials can be great adepts), are con- 
sidered to indicate want of dignity and strength of 
mind, besides being a sure sign of defeat. 

National spirit as understood by Chinamen exists 
chiefly among the literati^ who have shown great 
inflexibiHty in their hostility to foreigners, although, 
like Shylock, they will *' buy with you, sell with you, 
talk with you, walk with you — but will not eat with 
you, drink with you, nor pray with you." Among the 
common people no thought is given to patriotism, and 
this accounts a good deal for the cowardice so con- 
spicuously displayed in the recent war with Japan, by 
the raw recruits from all parts of the Empire under 



46 ANOTHER CHINA. 

incapable Mandarin officers. It is well known that the 
Chinese troops, mostly composed of coolies, mutinied, 
and deserted in numbers, despite the terrors of decapi- 
tation. 

Speaking of the hollowness and humbug exposed 
during the war. Sir Henry Norman writes, that — 
" Against the French soldiers in Tonquin, as brave as 
possible, but mere handfuls in number, exhausted by 
the climate, badly led, and feebly supported from home, 
the Chinese troops won a good many victories ; but 
against the regiments of Japan, fighting in a climate 
which was their own, admirably officered, perfectly 
armed, and enthusiastically supported, the Chinese 
braves have fallen back like sheep. "^ Sir H. Norman 
adds, however, that the Chinese seamen do not want 
for courage, and would fight properly under good 
officers whom they do not possess. 

Though the Chinese certainly showed little courage 
during the war with Japan, still it should be admitted 
that had they been drilled and disciplined by another 
Gordon, they might have held their ground better. 
A Chinaman's courage can be roused by desire of 
plunder as among the pirates, and it can also be 
excited by a feud. The inhabitants of two villages at 
feud will fight most desperately, quite oblivious of the 
fact that they belong to the same race and the same 

1 Far East, chap, xviii. 



A WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 47 

country. During the celebrated Taiping rebellion, the 
rebels were so little deficient in valour, that their leader, 
a veritable Chinese '' Mohamet," very nearly upset the 
Imperial dynasty, had not General Gordon vanquished 
him with the Chinese soldiers he drilled so inflexibly into 
discipline and unswerving obedience ; qualities quite 
unknown to the raw levies, under equally ignorant 
Mandarins, who were sent to cope with the Japanese. 
A Chinese when goaded over much by a Mandarin's 
exactions will bravely attack his Yamen or Court, while 
he either flies in terror or tries a persuasive pourparler 
On one occasion the Celestials finding their Mandarin 
was taxing them far above the Government standard, 
came in a band to his Yamen, and destroyed all his 
possessions, while at the same they set a guard over 
the Treasury, saying that Imperial property was sacred, 
and should be preserved intact. 

While claiming for the Chinese a certain degree of 
courage, which seems to be more negative than active, 
Monseigneur Reynaud maintains the same opinion of 
Chinese sailors as Sir Henry Norman. The Bishop 
writes that they are exceflent sailors in the manage- 
ment of their fishing and trading junks ; that he has 
often been on board a Chinese vessel in rough weather, 
and has watched the sailors, calm and determined, 
soothing the frightened and clamorous passengers, and 
manceuvring their ship with bold dextenly ; while 
drenched by pain and deprived of sleep and food they 



48 ANOTHER CHINA, 

continued their voyage across the stormy sea, without a 
murmur or complaint. Consequently, if they can show 
such qualities on board their junks, they could easily 
be trained on the warships were they under competent 
officers instead of ignorant Mandarins who do not know 
the A B C of naval tactics. 

The knowledge of all the excellent qualities inherent 
in the Chinese must naturally inspire Catholic mis- 
sionaries with great hope for the future of this singular 
people, even in spite of the strange inconsistencies of 
character and ideas produced by long centuries of 
paganism and superstition. 




CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS, 49 



VIL 
CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS* 

Le style c'esi Vhomme it is said, and it may be 
fairly held that the language of a people is some 
indication of its spirit and manner of living. The daily 
language of the Chinese is full of proverbial sayings, 
which are in constant use among them, praising virtue 
and condemning vice. Some of them point out the 
vanity of worldly honours, the contempt of riches, the 
avoidance of pleasures that entail so much misery, the 
horror of injustice, the effects of anger and impatience, 
the folly of pride, the iniquity of slander, the shortness 
of life, and so on. Others inculcate love of virtue, 
practice of good works, esteem of wisdom, patience in 
troubles, forgetfulness of injuries, fidelity, gratitude, 
humility, and good example. The proverbs having 
reference to charity are particularly expressive and 
beautiful ; and it is to be desired that our missionaries 
should make great use in their sermons and instructions 
of these axioms in which may be heard distant echoes 
of passages in the Gospel. The value of these proverbs, 
which are accepted by the Chinese as irrefutable 



50 ANOTHER CHINA, 

arguments, must not, however, be exaggerated ; as there 
IS often a very great difference between words and 
actions, as the Chinese admit themselves, in this local 
proverb, ''There are people who talk like sages, and act 
like demons." We must not imagine that the Chinese 
have only these fine maxims on their lips, for many of the 
first sentences learned by children are full of most awful 
curses, and indeed some of these proverbs express very 
false and pagan ideas. The familiar use made by the 
Chinese of their proverbs seem to be a proof that they 
are not solely employed as a mask to deceive others, and 
that even those who do not observe them, acknowledge 
their truth, and cite them to conceal their own wrong 
doing. The language of an entire race cannot be one 
universal falsehood ; and these moral notions, so often 
repeated, must be esteemed by individuals even if they 
do not always follow them ; and such clear ideas of good 
and evil can surely be no obstacle to their conversion. 

Having said so much in favour of the language of 
the Chinese from a moral standpoint, we may add a 
few words as to the difficulty which Europeans find in 
using it. The dialect of Ning-Po is much softer, and 
easier to learn than many of the others, and it also has 
more affinity to the Mandarin or Court dialect spoken 
among the officials. Yet a foreigner can easily be mis- 
led by the Chinese making the same word stand for 
totally opposite things, the meaning of which can only 
be detected by the diff"erence of tone ; for instance, in 



CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS. 51 

order to avert the malice or evil eye of bad spirits, great 
confusion purposely exists as to terms of relationship. 
In one family the mother will be called aunt, while a next- 
door neighbour will style his aunt, mother — naturally 
creating misunderstandings, in which exasperating pro- 
pensity, the Chinese can display the most consummate 
ingenuity, especially where bewildered foreigners are 
concerned. The one word '* nai-nai," mother, is used 
for grand-mother, great-grand-mother, aunt, and grand- 
aunt, and the only solution to this Chinese puzzle lies in 
the question, ** In what degree of relationship is so-and- 
so to your father and mother. " The following anecdote is 
a good instance of such a misunderstanding, although 
its result was exceedingly fortunate, which is not often 
the case on such occasions. 

One day a Catechumen arrived out of breath at the 
mission station, and with tears in his eyes told the 
missionary his mother was dying. The father, thinking 
he meant his old Christian grandmother, fetched the Holy 
Oils, and hastened away. He had been twenty minutes 
on the road when the catechist who was accompanying 
him, asked " Father, why have you brought the Holy 
Oils, for it is not the Christian grandmother who is ill, 
but the Catechumen's adoptive mother, who is a pagan ? " 
The missionary thought it was very tiresome to be taken 
on a long expedition to see a pagan woman, but the 
sudden inspiration struck him that God wished to 
save this poor soul, and therefore had allowed him to 



52 ANOTHER CHINA. 

misunderstand the Catechumen's meaning. Accordingly 
the missionary hurried along the bad road praying that 
the Sacred Heartwouldgrant the grace of conversion. This 
heathen woman had formerly adopted the Catechumen, 
but she knew very little about his religion, though she 
never opposed his conversion, and merely said that she 
would die in the same beliefs as her ancestors. It was 
dark when the missionary arrived, and at too late an 
hour for him to do more than send a Christian to say to 
the poor woman, " The father hearing you were ill, has 
come expressly to see you, and to exhort you to honour 
God and save your soul. Will you receive him to- 
morrow morning? " The sick woman at once asked for 
baptism and was overjoyed to hear that the father had 
come '^ to pour the Holy Water over her." As she was 
not in immediate danger she was instructed, and the 
next morning after Mass, the missionary questioned 
her, and found to h*is joy that she only required baptism 
to go straight to heaven. To prevent superstitious 
practices after her death, the convert sent word to all her 
heathen relations that she was dying a Christian, so that 
they should not prevent her burial according to the. rites 
of the Catholic Church, as very often trouble arises 
when a pagan dies at once after baptism, and the 
heathens persist in declaring the baptism to be an 
invention of *' the European devil." 

We may now cast a glance upon the institutions of 
the country, which in a certain degree reflect its customs, 



CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS. 53 

and strike us more forcibly than proverbs, besides giving 
a more approximate view of one side of Chinese character. 
The institutions we speak of are societies or estabUsh- 
ments devoted to the reUef of misery, or to pubHc works 
of great utihty. Now the Chinese have such institutions, 
embracing every kind of good work, even including one 
for animals. Thus the English, who have a similar 
association, have been anticipated by the Chinamen, 
who have societies for the purchase of animals, and 
homes where they let them end their days in peace. 
This respect for animal life, which is traded upon by the 
beggars who threaten to kill serpents, as a way of 
extorting money unjustly, comes from the notion of 
transmigration of souls, in which the Chinese believe ; 
and the dread of meeting with some unlucky ancestor 
or near relation under the shape of a dog, or the 
plumage of a cock, increases their tenderness for the 
lives of beasts, to say nothing of an instinctive feeling 
of compassion urging them to respect animals. At 
Shang-hai is an enormous refuge for bipeds and 
quadrupeds in their old age. However, there are other 
institutions of far greater importance than these, and 
the number of these is so great that only a few can 
be mentioned in these pages. 

Orphanages. — Everybody knows of the cruelty and the 
infanticide which is prevalent in China. In some dis- 
tricts few famiUes will consent to maintain more than 
one daughter, while the rest are ruthlessly destroyed as 



54 ANOTHER CHINA* 

useless creatures. But it is not generally known that 
this barbarous custom is repugnant to many Chinese, 
who endeavour to extirpate it, or at least to diminish 
its frequency, by establishing orphanages for the reception 
of these innocent victims. These are to be found in all 
the principal towns of this province, and even in some 
well-knovv^n country market-places. Doctors are attached 
to these institutions, and the infants are confided to 
nurses receiving a monthly payment and some clothes. 
Later, the children are returned to their parents, if they 
choose to claim them, or else they are bought for a 
dollar as little daughters-in-law by poor families, or they 
take service with the richer classes. 

Ahnshouses. — These are for poor old men, who are 
lodged and fed, and are sometimes permitted to have 
their wives with them in a separate apartment. Often, 
as in the capital of this province, each is given a small 
cabin, with a monthly pension of a few '' cash " for food, 
but the pagoda, which is in the middle of the settlement, 
is for general use. Everyone lives and dresses here as 
he chooses. At the almshouse of Ning-Po and else- 
where, the food is in common, and the society provides 
the necessary clothing. Younger people, who are infirm 
or forsaken, and especially those who are blind, are 
also admitted into these refuges, where great liberty is 
allowed, of which several profit by going out begging. 
This is very lucrative in China, almost a society in 
itself, with its chiefs, its rules, privileges, and even its 



CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS, 55 

own little penal code. The beggars are assigned their 
days and stations, the limits of which are not infringed 
with impunity. Nearly all the chiefs are rich and 
influential, having their palanquins, and often living 
in great style, while the simple beggars realize small 
fortunes. 

Asylums for Widows. — -In China women cannot 
support themselves, there being few industries for them, 
and these bringing very insufficient wages. Poor 
widows, particularly those having children, who cannot 
or will not marry again, are exposed to starvation and 
very grave moral dangers ; and in order to save them 
from these miseries, the charitable societies have these 
peaceful asylums for their benefit. Other widows, 
living with their families, are granted monthly alms, 
according to their necessities. 

Dispensaries, &c. — There are numbers of dispensaries 
where patients are treated gratuitously, and druggists, 
where medicines can be sold to the poor at a cheaper 
rate, or are given for nothing. In the free schools the 
children are taught the classics of their country. 
Coffins, undertakers, and cemeteries, are provided for 
dead paupers, or strangers, as well as places where the 
dead can be kept until removed by their relations to 
their own district. Moreover, men are employed to 
keep the public cemeteries m good order. Other societies 
look after travellers, as well as after the lighting, cleans- 
ing and paving of streets and high roads ; they repair 



56 ANOTHER CHINA, 

or construct bridges and ferry boats, or build kiosques 
on a good site, at stated distances, where one can find 
fresh tea benches, and often magnificent scenery to 
admire. 

The poor are never forgotten. At the beginning of 
winter, the benevolent associations distribute bowls of 
rice, clothes, and sometimes money. In several places 
hot rice can be had every day at public stoves. On 
New Year's Eve at Ning-Po, the leading people of the 
town assemble the poor in the High street, to give them 
clothes, rice, and two small rouleaus each in the form 
of '' cash." Some societies undertake the care of dikes 
and canals, while others, in fertile seasons, collect 
quantities of provisions to be sold cheaply in periods 
of scarcity, and money even is lent without interest, 
to enable the very poor to gain a livelihood. 

These associations, as well as others all existing in 
this province, have been founded by some rich families, 
and the Mandarins frequently issue edicts in their 
favour. Nearly all are sufficiently endowed, though 
some, such as the widows' asylums, require annual 
assistance, which is obtained by taxation of certain 
provisions or merchandize. 

Though it may surprise our readers to hear of such 
beneficent associations among pagans, they should not 
leap to the conclusion that China is a land of milk 
and honey, where every unfortunate creature may be 
sure of aid ; for these charitable institutions are deplor- 



CHINESE LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS- 57 

ably mismanaged. Great is the robbery and waste by 
rapacious underlings, not to mention the utter careless- 
ness and the various abuses to be found in these Chinese 
establishments, thereby forming a striking contrast to 
those of our missions, to the wondering admiration of 
the natives. Still these good works prove that there is 
some feeling of philanthropy among these people, and 
everywhere the missionaries constantly meet with souls, 
who, as TertuUian would say, are " naturally Christians, 
since they can comprehend the spirit of charity." 




5^ ANOTHER CHINA. 



VIIL 

SOME VIRTUES OF THE CHINESE- 

Benevolence is not the only virtue known among the 
Chinamen. It seems to be the general belief that they 
are quite unacquainted with any sense of justice, and 
that every Celestial must be a thief from his childhood. 
Although equity is liable to many mischances in the 
midst of a heathen nation, there are numerous straight- 
forward people, whose scrupulous honesty would excite 
admiration in any Christian land. 

A man, originally an inhabitant of Tye-Ky, near 
Ning-Po, had formerly a shop for pipes at Pekin which 
was in a flourishing condition. He just had the 
happiness of having a little son, when the arrival of 
the rebels forced him to fly from the capital. On his 
return to his native village, he died, leaving his child 
who was too young to understand anything, quite 
ignorant of the past. Later on the youth heard some- 
thing about the shop at Pekin, but as he knew he could 
never find it in such a large city, he made no inquiries. 
Fifty years passed, when one day an old man with a 
white beard was seen in the streets of Tye-Ky, with 
the Pekin accent. He was seeking information, but 



SOME VIRTUES OF THE CHINESE. 59 

without givingf his reasons, concerning the man who had 
forsaken the shop at Pekin. On seeing the photograph 
of the man, he at once asked to see his son, to whom 
after very minute questions, the old man said, that he 
had been employed in this shop, which was confided to 
his care when his master left Pekin. For fifty years he 
continued at the trade, and now before his death he 
wished to give the earnings to the legitimate heir, 
amounting to 5,000 taels. The heir then wished to 
divide the sum with the old man, or to recompense his 
honesty in some degree, but he refused all reward and 
returned to die at Pekin, 

In the Sub-Prefecture of Ning-kai a peasant named 
Ou-te-lin had a large family, and did not even possess 
an acre on which to grow rice for their support. On 
this account he worked on hire over thirty years, and was 
much esteemed for his industry. As charitable as he 
was hardworking, he even found means to give alms. At 
the end of the year, when making up his little accounts 
he would put aside for charity any surplus over his 
expenses. He would not allow his wife to wash his 
clothes for fear she should tear them, but he would 
wash them himself with the greatest care, so that they 
might last longer and thus leave him more money for 
good works. Unfortunately he died a pagan, not know- 
ing of the Catholic religion which he would certainly have 
embraced. However, his father, equally charitable, has 
now become a Catechumen. 



6o ANOTHER CHINA. 

Near the same town there is a pagan, aged eighty, 
justly esteemed by his neighbours as a model of probity. 
Although he belongs to a rich family, he has led a life of 
privation for sixty years, so as to be able to do more 
good works. Since his childhood he has only worn 
straw shoes, and even in his advanced age will go seven 
or eight miles to render a service. He has built more 
than forty bridges over the mountain torrents, and 
paved miles of roads. His last work is a bridge of 
three arches over a swift river, where every year many 
were drowned trying to ford it, and to defray the 
expense he sold part of his property, keeping, with the 
Sipproval of his family, just enough for their maintenance. 
Can it then be said that men capable of such charity can 
never become sincere Christians ? 

There is also another virtue, which more than charity 
or justice, is supposed by some to have no existence 
in China, and that fs the virtue of purity, which is 
neither unknown nor despised by the Chinese, especially 
in the country places where they are naturally simple, 
just, and virtuous. 

The assertion that there has been more than one 
Chinese Lucrece may be disputed ; but although it may 
be easier to discover, than to speak of, those who have 
by a voluntary death expiated an involuntary outrage, 
still the difficulty may be avoided by recounting two 
cases, in which there are no repugnant features. 

I have frequently seen triumphal arches or monuments 



SOME VIRTUES OF THE CHINESE, 6i 

jn sculptured stone erected to the memory of people 
remarkable for their virtues, and among these were 
many commemorating the continence and fidelity of 
widows, in refusing advantageous marriages. One of 
these arches has been recently erected by order of the 
Emperor in memory of Kiou-He-Mei, a girl who was 
betrothed to a neighbour, who died a tew years later. 
Her parents being already dead, her nearest relations 
insisted that she should be betrothed again. She so 
steadfastly refused her consent that her relations, with- 
out her knowledge, secretly signed an engagement of 
marriage on her behalf. The wedding day approaching, 
it became necessary to prepare her wedding clothes, 
and to inform her of what had been done. Kiou-He-Mei 
indignantly replied that they had deceived her shame- 
fully, and that she would die, as she had lived — a 
virgin. As nothing could shake her determination, her 
discomfited relatives spread the report that the bride- 
groom's family would not accept their niece. These 
people, on the contrary, being most anxious for the 
alliance, on account of the bride's excellent character, 
brought the case before the Mandarin, begging of him 
to force He-Mei to fulfil the contract. The Mandarin, 
influenced by his wife, took pity on the poor creature, 
and avoided any decision by departing on a journey. 
During his absence, the bridegroom's family bribed one 
of the chief assessors of the Mandarin's court, who vainly 
tried by violence and threats to compel He-Mei to give 



62 ANOTHER CHINA. 

her consent. In despair, and not knowing how to escape 
her fate, she hanged herself in the court where she was 
imprisoned. On his return, the Mandarin forced the 
assessor to bury her with the same honours he should 
pay to his own mother, and he further petitioned the 
Emperor's leave to erect a monument that should remind 
everyone of the tried virtue and courage of the unhappy 
Kiou-He-Mei.i Many young people having heard her 
sad history have refused to leave the paternal roof. 

A-Kane, a young pagan girl at Ning-Po, had always 
an aversion to marriage. Having come to learn 
embroidery from the Sisters of Charity, she also 
acquired a great devotion to our Blessed Lady. Her 
mother, desirous to marry her against her will, recalled 
her home, where she still lives, longing for baptism, 
persevering in her resolution to remain single, praying 
to the Blessed Virgin, and avoiding work on Sundays. 
However, she knows'that soon she will be shut up in a 
palanquin, and sent to the bridegroom's house. When 
that day comes, she will not commit suicide, which she 
is aware is a great crime ; but she will cut off all her 
hair, and hopes on this account she may be returned. to 
her parents. 

The Chinese have the utmost respect for the pro- 
prieties of social intercourse, in which great reserve is 
maintained between men and women. It is really 

1 See Frontispiece 



SOME VIRTUES OF THE CHINESE* 63 

surprising to see such strictness and decorum and 
absence of familiarity in tlie manners of a heathen 
nation. The women are remarkably modest in all their 
actions ; they rarely speak to the men, and are satisfied 
with the society of people of their own sex, even when 
there are family gatherings, and as it has already been 
observed, the Chinese are scandalized by the very 
different manners of the Europeans, which, in their 
eyes, appear to be exceedingly frivolous and indecorous. 




64 ANOTHER CHINA. 



IX. 

THE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY. 

Our aim hitherto has been to show that, even taking 
the pagans of China as they are, they are not so utterly 
depraved as to leave us no hope of their conversion. 
It has been our deliberate aim to dwell on those aspects 
of Chinese life and character, which show them at their 
best, in order to undermine, as far as possible, the 
belief that they are so bad that it is better to leave 
them alone; in other words, that they are ^^ beyond 
redemption." 

We may now leave* the region of mere probabilities, 
however interesting they may be, and turn to a different 
sort of argument ; we may consider the standing and the 
conduct of those of them who have actually renounced 
paganism, and have fallen under the influence of the 
Catholic religion. We may now consider whether the 
waters of baptism have not purified their hearts, en- 
lightened their minds, and changed their mode of living ? 
As we must estimate our hopes of the future by the 
results of the past, this question is important, bearing 
as it does on the arguments for and against the conver- 



THE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY, 65 

sion of the Chinese. It is really a fact that we have 
excellent Christians among them, loving- relig-ion, and 
understanding its obligations, which they regularly fulfil 
in spite of obstacles and often painful sacrifices. 

Of course we may have careless or even vicious people, 
but sooner or later they turn over a new leaf ; while 
apostacy is a rare occurrence, as everything is done 
to test the reality of each conversion, and no pains are 
spared for the instruction of Catechumens. In a land 
like China, where abuse of authority, bad administration, 
love of litigation, and a vengeful spirit are rife, if we 
were to open our doors to everybody, we should quickly 
be overwhelmed, and our whole time absorbed in set- 
tling the quarrels of the people. Moreover, there is the 
danger of unwittingly posing as champions of unjust 
causes, besides the risk of opposition to the Mandarins, 
who, at best, barely tolerate us. Religion also would 
suffer, as the converts would be accused of interested 
motives in joining us. Hence it is very necessary to be 
most particular in the admission of Catechumens, and 
to reject all who come to us with lawsuits. Before 
pagans can be inscribed as Catechumens, they must 
renounce all superstitions, destroy their idols, begin to 
learn the catechism and their prayers, and to live as if 
they were already Christians. When possible, they also 
have a period of probation in our settlements, where they 
are imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and by good, 
example are trained in the maxims of the Gospel. The 

F 



66 ANOTHER CHINA. 

missionaries constantly catechize them, and explain 
every difficulty. In their own homes, too, they devote 
themselves to the study of Christian doctrine, and they 
often sing their prayers during their work, or repeat 
lessons while travelling, and some will even pay heathens 
to teach them to read quicker. Many of these people are 
illiterate ; others are advanced in years, and the greater 
number are occupied supporting their families, so that 
it requires courage to undertake the learning of prayers 
and the catechism. The women are even worse off, as 
they generally cannot read one word. On an average 
the instruction and testing of Catechumens lasts a year, 
and after baptism, they are subjected to a rule that 
prevents their forgetting what they have learned. Every 
Sunday the Christians assembled in the Church must 
recite aloud the catechism, so that it is gone through 
several times in the year. At the annual confession, the 
missionaries ask eath one questions from the catechism, 
which obliges the people to recollect what they have 
been taught. Experience has proved the value of this 
rule, which is rigorously enforced in this province, and 
in many other vicariates. Our Christians thus carefully 
instructed are usually pious and fervent, having an 
instinctive horror of the superstitions around them, and 
we have occasionally to moderate the zeal of those who 
are too ready to express their contempt. At the same 
time it should be observed that some of our neophytes 
are really confessors for the faith, owing to the tortures 



THE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY. 67 

and ill-treatment inflicted to enforce compliance with 
local superstitions. Their fidelity is more to be lauded, 
as very often they are given the option of a small fine, 
which they steadfastly refuse to pay. Our Christians 
are most attentive to their devotions, and family prayer 
is a general rule. They are very fond of the Rosary, 
the fifteen mysteries being sung at intervals in the 
Church on Sundays. Many old people spend their whole 
time praying, and there is great devotion to the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

One day a Christian woman at Ning-Po came at six 
o'clock in the evening to ask for Holy Communion. The 
astonished missionary replied it was impossible as she 
should be fasting, and that she would do better to look 
over her catechism, which she seemed to have forgotten. 
" Father," said the woman, ''I know my catechism, 
and I am still fasting notwithstanding this late hour. 
But I have a brutal husband w^ho prevents me coming 
here ; and as he went on a short journey to-day, I profited 
by his absence to prepare for Holy Communion. Pray 
let us hasten, as should he return before I do, I shall be 
beaten." The missionary accordingly heard her con- 
fession and gave her Holy Communion. 

Communions are frequent, and the young men go 
once a month to confession. Lent is so strictly observed 
among them that it has not been thought expedient to 
publish the mitigations allowed elsewhere. 

The Catholic Chinese have great faith in the inter- 



68 ANOIHER CHINA. 

cession of Our Lady. In one village, where a single 
room used as a chapel, could not contain the 200 
Catechumens, matters were rendered still worse by the 
river (after the fashion of Chinese rivens) threatening to 
leave its bed in order to flow in the direction of the 
poor chapel. A vow was made that a good church, 
dedicated to the Queen of Angels, should be erected if 
by her intercession this misfortune could be averted, 
and on Sundays the Christians were to chant the Rosary 
for this intention. A few months later a small island 
formed in front of the chapel, and the river retreated 
more than a mile away from its dangerous course, 
while actually rushes and reeds have grown upon this 
immense extent of ground abandoned by the river 
Kiang. A dike was to be made as well as irrigating 
canals, and soon, as if by magic, fine harvests were 
expected to spring from the new and fertile soil. In 
consequence of this successful appeal to Our Lady's 
intercession, many pagans have become neophytes, and 
the Church of Our Lady of the Angels now has plenty 
of room for its congregation. 

We have just lost an old patriarch in the village of 
Ma-pong, who used to spend long hours adoring the 
Blessed Sacrament, and on his return home he would 
read the Lives of the Saints. He was not the only one 
to visit the Church, where fervent Christian women 
come to kneel in turn before the tabernacle, and on 
Fridays they assemble for the devotion of the Way of 



THE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY. 69 

the Cross The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin is a 
favourite devotion among young girls. Those who are 
unmarried recite it every day together, when there are 
several in the same village. Their example is some- 
times followed by married people ; and one day on 
entering the chapel of Chan-lin to read his breviary, 
Monsigneur Reynaud was greatly surprised to find there 
a man and woman reciting their office aloud, answering 
each other like two choirs. They were the catechist 
and his wife, who were in the habit of doing so every 
day. The Chinese kneel in the Church the whole time 
during their prayers, which they also sing aloud. So 
melodious and devotional is this chant that one could 
spend entire days listening to it, and it is the general 
opinion of European and Chinese missionaries that even 
the saints in heaven could not sing more divinely.^ 

Speaking of the virtues of the Christian life, the 
practice of them is well known to our neophytes. They 
have the faith, the true faith, a lively faith. As I write 



^ However, on the principle that ever}^ eye forms its own idea 
beauty, it may be remarked that there can be a difference of opinion 
concerning the musical abilities of Chinese Catechumens so highly 
extolled by Monsigneur Reynaud. An English lady, who is a 
member of his ilock, described the first Sunday in China as " one 
long attempt to suppress mirth at the fearful uproar going on during 
Mass and Benediction, when every Celestial in the congregation 
sang in his own favourite key. He who squalled loudest, prayed 
best, while some fervent women kept up a high soprano in a nasal 
organ. All the devotions are sung in the same fashion, and the 
Chinese appear able to go on like wound-up machines." But there 
is no accounting for tastes. — (Editor's Note.) 



7o ANOTHER CHINA, 

my mind reverts to a young catechist, who knows 
his religion almost as well as an aged theologian, and 
perhaps practises it better. He might be well ordained 
a priest at once, only that he happens to be married. 
But I have no loss on that account, for his eldest son is 
in the seminary, and he is even more like his father in 
his moral, than in his physical, quahties. When there 
is question of gaining souls for this good man, nothing 
can stop him, nothing can fatigue him, neither distance, 
nor hunger, nor bad weather. His life consists in doing 
good, and in preaching, expending all his strength and 
his money. How often has his mother come to me, 
with tears in her eyes, begging me to moderate his zeal. 
'' He will kill himself," she says, '* he forgets to eat and 
to sleep, he has no time except for the service of God 
and his neighbour." Affable and modest as an angel, 
no one can resist him. It is a pleasure to hear him 
exhort the dying and preach to the pagans ; and it is 
even more beautiful to see him practise humility, patience, 
and all the Christian virtues. His heart seems to be 
set on things above this world, for which he has a true 
contempt. 

A few pages back, I was speaking of another edifying 
Christian, whom we have recently lost ; it is now time to 
mention his sister. Possessing superior qualities, hand- 
some, intelligent, kind-hearted, and endowed with good 
manners, she has devoted them all to God, and for 
thirty years has been at the head of an orphanage which 



THE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY. 71 

she manages admirably. Far from receiving a salary, 
she spends her own means on this institution, and she 
would like to leave to others the care of the big strong 
orphans, so that she might have to herself all the small 
weakly children including idiots and other invalids. 
Incapable of doing anything wrong, this iimocent soul 
imagines she does not love God enough, her humility 
being as profound as her charity ; while her patience 
and her tenderness gains her the love of all the orphans. 
Her nephew Koang-yao resembles his aunt in all the 
Christian virtues. As a distinguished scholar he had 
more chance of obtaining his degree than his comrades ; 
but he preferred a simple life to the false glitter of 
worldly honour. As a physician renowned among the 
Chinese, he also prefers attending the poor gratuitously, 
to the rich who would pay him well. He helps his aunt 
in the care of the orphans, and is the purveyor of the 
establishment in spite of the trouble it entails. His 
spare moments are spent in reading religious works 
with which he is so well acquainted, that he is quite a 
theologian. One of his sons is a Seminarist, his eldest 
daughter according to a family tradition has entered a 
community, while her only sister lived unmarried with 
her parents, and never went out anywhere except to the 
chapel and the orphanage With talent like her aunt 
she strove to imitate her piety, virtue, and recollection. 
At the age of twenty-seven she died like a little saint 
which was the name given her in the village. Her third 



72 ANOTHER CHINA, 

brother threatens to follow her soon, his already broken 
health having been greatly shaken by the loss of his 
wife and child. Though quite resigned, he is preparing 
for death, which he neither fears nor regrets, by giving 
his means to charitable works. There are many other 
families like this one; for instance, the family of Chu, at 
Ning-Po, every generation of which gives a priest to the 
Church, and at present the eldest daughter is a Sister of 
Charity, the second a postulant, and the third a Virgin 
of Purgatory. This family has been photographed in 
a single group, which is reproduced on the opposite 
page. 

Speaking of native religious, I may remark that there 
is a community of nuns composed of women from the 
best Chinese families, devoted to prayer and good works 
for the souls of Purgatory ; and there are also excellent 
Chinese Sisters of Charity, whose yellowish complexions 
under the cornette .alone distinguish them from their 
European sisters. They will be of the utmost use by 
going out wherever they are wanted in bands, to work as 
school-mistresses and catechists, to instruct girls and 
women. This is of the highest importance, as it is 
contrary to Chinese etiquette for the missionaries to 
approach them, and it is most essential that the mother 
of a family should be the first converted, for she will 
bring after her the husband and children, and keep 
them to the practice of their religion. So convinced are 
many missionaries of this, that they often refuse to 



THEINATIVE CATHOLIC BODY. 73 

Baptize the men without their wives. The Catechumens 
being now so numerous, it is impossible for them all 
to journey down to the large mission stations as they 
used to do formerly, and whole villages are apparently 
waiting until the women can be instructed. 

The following remarks will show the importance of 
Chinese nuns, on the mission where there are 100,000,000 
women ignorant of the Christian religion : — '' The state 
of degradation to which heathenism has brought the 
women and girls of China is truly pitiable. The higher 
classes are secluded in their own homes, just as in India, 
and spend miserable aimless lives, almost their only 
occupation being smoking, drinking tea, and embroider- 
ing tiny shoes for their poor crippled feet. You rarely 
find one among them who can read, or is in any way 
educated. 

But though we speak of the ignorance and degradation 
of the women of China, they are by no means naturally 
stupid. On the contrary, where they have opportunities 
given them for developing their mental powers, they 
show themselves to be an intelligent race, well repaying 
the trouble spent in their teaching and training."^ 

There are also native missionaries, Chinese priests 
who say Mass, and fulfil every sacerdotal duty, and 
they are invaluable by their tact in managing business, 



^ Written by the late Mrs. Stewart, Dithlin University Missionary 
Magazine, p. 23, October, 1895. This is Protestant evidence ; but 
none the less valuable on that account. 



74 ANOTHER CHINA. 

and by introducing the Catholic religion into regions 
where otherwise it would be rejecte^d as a foreign 
institution. Their respect for authority, their zeal for 
conversions, and their unaffected piety render them 
worthy of our gratitude and esteem. 

It may then be asked if there be such good Chinese 
priests, where is the urgent need of more European 
missionaries ? But the answer to the question is simple 
enough. Though the native clergy are of such assist- 
ance, they are unable to have the sole charge of districts 
as large as great European dioceses, without the 
guidance of a European missionary. Many cases arise 
in which, by his superior knowledge and experience, 
the latter is better able to give a decision than his 
Chinese comrade, w^ho is not so capable of directing 
other people. The general rule, therefore, is to place a 
European priest at the head of a mission, with one or 
two native missionarfes as his curates. Even at Pekin, 
where there are old Christian families of three hundred 
years' standing, the Chinese priests require the support 
of a European missionary. How much more do they 
require him in the Vicariate of Tche-Kiang, where the 
Catechumens are nearly all new Christians. The 
missionaries are of opinion that it is only after four 
generations that the Chinese can be thoroughly imbued 
with the spirit of the Catholic faith. For this reason, 
only Chinamen whose families have been Catholics for 
two or three centuries, are admitted to the priesthood 



^HE NATIVE CATHOLIC BODY, 75 

Converts of a recent date are never accepted without a 
special dispensation, which is seldom applied for, and 
which is still more seldom granted. 

Baron Von Hlibner, in his book of travels, says that 
the native priests '* eagerly seek theological discussions, 
but, more subtle than profound, they rarely go beyond 
a certain point in science. Vis-a-vis European mis- 
sionaries they feel, and sometimes resent, their inferiority, 
but if treated with gentleness and discernment they 
become excellent fellow-labourers. With regard to 
morals, they leave nothing to be desired. They have 
never yet been promoted to the higher grades of the 
hierarchy."^ 



^Ramble Round the World, vol. ii., p. 423. 



76 ANOTHER CHINA, 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS.— EVIDENCE OF 
THE MISSIONARIES* 

What we have said about the native CathoHcs of 
China, people and priests, may lead the reader already 
to surmise that, numerous and grave as are the obstacles 
to the complete success of our Chinese mission, they 
may not prove to be insurmountable. The Chinese 
have a proverb which says, " True gold does not dread 
fire." Now we have shown that the Chinese converts 
have stood this test in the past, and that they are 
standing it now : h^ce we may conclude with the 
proverb that there is some "true gold" among them. 
And really when we consider their sincerity as I have 
described it, when we consider that at the call of grace 
they have trampled under foot all human respect, and 
have voluntarily exposed, and do expose, themselves to 
insult and persecution, how can we imagine China to 
be a country invincibly opposed to the progress of 
religion and the ethics of the Gospel ? On the contrary, 
the alms of the faithful and the labours of the missionaries 
have not fallen upon an arid soil, nor has the word of 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS, 77 

the Gospel been like a seed lost, or stifled among thorns; 
but, as will be seen still further by the results to be 
recounted in this chapter, it is striking very deep roots 
indeed. 

Most of the obstacles to the conversion of the Chinese 
do not arise so much from the faults of individuals, as 
as from the hatred of the Mandarins, the calumnies of 
the literati^ and family persecution ; and as it has already 
been observed, it is chiefly the absence of real liberty, 
and some want of courage, that we have to take into 
account in reckoning the chances of Catholicity in the 
Celestial Empire. At the risk of some repetition, we 
may say here another word on the qualities of the 
Chinaman that are supposed effectually to bar all chance 
of his conversion. But even granting the worst — 
granting that the Chinese are addicted to cupidity, 
pride, lying, cheating, and thieving — all of which vices 
are especially opposed to our religion, which breathes 
charity, justice, humility, purity, devotion, and truth : 
certainly the above dispositions are not of themselves 
a proof that the earth of the Chinese heart is in a 
favourable condition for being tilled. But Instead of 
the above enumeration of vices (which It would be easy 
to prolong still further), why not say in one word that 
the Chinese are still pagans, and In this respect are 
the same as other pagans ? If the above-mentioned 
catalogue of vices was the peculiar and exclusive heritage 
ot the Chinese, and a sort of infallible mark by which 



78 ANOTHER CHINA. 

they might be distinguished from the rest of man- 
kind, pagan and Christian, how many Chinese, alas ! 
would be found outside of China, and even in civilized 
countries ! The invasion of the Yellow Race which so 
many thinkers fear for the future of Europe, might be 
thought to have commenced already — perhaps to be far 
advanced. 

On the other hand, if the Chinese were altogether 
free from the vices which are, with more or less justice, 
imputed to them, they would then be our superiors, 
and would be no longer in need of conversion. We 
should go to them for the purpose of imitating, and 
not of converting, them : if conversion means not 
merely passing from one altar to another, but also 
includes a complete change of life along with a change 
in one's beliefs. If then the Chinese are bad, they are 
all the more in need of our compassion and help, 
especially if, as I hav^ tried to show, in spite of their 
vices, which are common to all heathens, they have 
also several excellent qualities that can only facilitate 
and consolidate the work of their salvation. 

One defect which I have referred to above, the super- 
stitious character of the Chinese, must now again come 
for a moment under consideration. We have seen that 
in certain respects their superstitions may be considered 
as a serious difficulty in our way. Here, however, I 
should like to point out, what I have not hitherto 
remarked, namely, that even their erroneous beliefs 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS* 79 

may in a certain sense count in their favour, inasmuch 
as they may sometimes tend to show a strong yearning 
after the Supernatural. After all, an indifferent pagan, 
having no faith in his idols, no idea of a future life, or 
regarding it as the veriest fable, is prone to be far less 
susceptible than the others to the arguments of the 
Catholic priest. I may as well give an instance here of 
the conversion of a very superstitious person. A hump- 
backed man on the island of King-Tang has four grown 
sons who are already grandfathers. The very numerous 
family were all converted, excepting the wife of the 
second son, who resisted all efforts for her conversion 
to a religion the very name of which w^as enough to put 
her in a fury. She did all in her power to dissuade her 
husband, who on the day of his baptism could find 
neither socks nor shoes, and had to appear at church 
barefooted, which looked very odd in contrast with his 
fine clothes, which his wife forgot to hide as well. 
Conquered by her husband, at least she refused to allow 
her children to be baptized, and when the missionary 
paid a visit, she would go to the female bonzes to pray 
with them ; or else she would remain to make a noise, 
scolding her children, laughing with the neighbours, or 
rattling cups and saucers during Mass or sermon, and 
by way of protest she was most fervent in observance 
of local superstitions and idolatrous practices. One 
day her husband, very seriously ill, said to her : *' I am 
dying because you will not become a Christian." She 



8o ANOTHER CHINA. 

replied : *' I will become a Christian only if you are 
cured." This was requiring a miracle, as the man's 
life was despaired of ; however, he had a dream/ and 
on awaking told his wife to go to a certain mountain 
for a particular herb which she would find there, adding 
the Blessed Virgin had just told him this herb would 
cure him. The wife obeyed his order, and the infusion 
prepared from this plant cured him immediately. Over- 
joyed, the wife kept her promise and prepared for 
baptism, and the first time she saw the missionary, 
she fell on her knees and begged he would baptize her 
children as soon as possible. Now, whenever he comes, 
she prepares the tea and refreshments, prevents all 
noise during Mass, and takes care to call everyone to 
prayers, and by her fervour and good example she 
endeavours to atone for her former behaviour. 

Although we have met with those who were perfectly 
insensible to every feligious feeling, yet in the province 
of Tche-Kiang (which is one of the most superstitious 
in China), the greater number of the people do believe 
in something. Above all, they believe that it is not in 
vain for people to live well in this world, as in the next 
there is a heaven and a hell, representations of which 



1 The Chinese CathoHcs have often great confidence in dreams, 
and perhaps their faith is rewarded. At least Monseigneur Reynaud 
appears to quote this instance as though the dream was probably in 
a certain sense supernatural. He does not advert further to the 
question, but our attention has been drawn to it from another 
source. — (Editor's Note.) 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS* 8i 

in the pagodas are often shown by their bonzes, and 
they have an expressive proverb, saying: ^*The good 
will have the recompense due to virtue, and the wicked 
the chastisement due to evil ; and if this retribution has 
not yet come, it is because the time for it has not yet 
arrived." 

The anxiety of the Chinese for a happy eternity 
prompts many of them to make painful vows, to under- 
take distant pilgrimages or long and rigorous fasts, 
which often last a lifetime. I know of one poor widow 
who for twenty years had been saving for a pilgrimage, 
and at last sold her cow, which was her most valued 
possession, in order to fulfil her vow before death. 

The bonzes, who kneel motionless before their idols, 
while one by one their fingers are consumed by a piece 
of burning incense ; the rough hermits, who fly from the 
world to shut themselves up in cold grottos among 
desolate mountains, where their severe penances invol- 
untarily recall to us the lives of the Fathers in the 
desert ; what motive but the thought of a future 
recompense could reconcile them to such cruel muti- 
lation, such frightful privations ? 

The spirit inspiring such practices may often be less 
an obstacle to conversion than a remote preparation, 
prx)ving that there is plenty of good will, although it 
is for the time unfortunately turned in the wrong direc- 
tion. As a rule, the heathens do not offer any serious 
defence of their false beliefs, nor do they try to 



82 ANOTHER CHINA, 

oppose our doctrines. Once their naturally subtle 
minds are open to conviction, they comprehend quickly 
enough that their superstitions are as ill-founded as 
our dogmas are worthy of the highest respect and 
veneration. If they have followed a false religion, it 
has been through ignorance of the true faith, and 
because they could find nothing better in their own 
country. Therefore, we may assume that as far as the 
conversion of the Chinese is concerned, their very pro- 
clivity to superstition may be turned to good account. 

Leaving once more considerations of a theoretical 
nature, I will proceed to deal with an assertion some- 
times made, namely, that conversions en masse are no 
longer possible in China. Now the falsity of this state- 
ment can be best contradicted by events that occur in 
this very province, where on all sides we are invited into 
large villages, and deputations are sometimes sent to us 
by entire cantons. .Overwhelmed by these petitions, 
my own missionaries no longer suffice for the work, and 
on all sides they are begging for helpers. The best proof 
I can give for this is to lay before the reader a few 
extracts from their letters, which will give some idea of 
their labours and of their hopes. 

Monsieur Louat writes : " The town of Lo-tsching 
continues to afford us much satisfaction ; Catechumens 
abound everywhere, and we have merchants and even 
/z/^r^/2 among them. With a chapel and a missionary 
here, there would soon be a flourishing congregation. 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS, 83 

I have just visited the two Sub-Prefectures of Pin-yan, 
and Che-ngan, where conversions are rapidly extending-, 
and if we had more help the progress would be much 
greater. The innumerable converts at Sien-tso had not 
been warned of my arrival, but they came in crowds 
last Sunday from a distance of three to four miles. The 
Church cannot hold them all, and half the congregation 
heard Mass outside. A deputation from Kin-Shiang in 
the South of Pin-yan, came to beg of me to go back 
with them to preach to many converts who had never 
seen a missionary, but believed heartily in our religion 
which they heard of from other Catechumens. Much 
to my regret I was obliged to defer this journey on 
account of all my work at Pin-yan and Che-ngan. In 
the last-mentioned place, the majority of the inhabitants 
think it would be well to have us, while some announce 
their determination to oppose our coming there. We 
are offered houses everywhere, and we shall be well 
received, as even literati have joined In the general wish 
for our arrival. The town is the first In my district, but, 
as at Pin-yan, one missionary cannot do all the work, 
a chapel and a school are required, but, aware of your 
poverty, I do not Indulge in these dreams, which could 
easily become realities had we the means. Passing by 
Hong-Kiao I found our Christians very quiet. It is 
the largest market-place in the Prefecture, and on 
certain days attracts thousands of peasants. Our little 
congregation has Increased so fast, that at every visit 



84 ANCfHER CHINA, 

I have to employ one whole day in making the acquaint- 
ance of our new recruits. If we could only be estab- 
lished there ; if we were not so poor, and so few ; if so 
many souls were not thereby the losers, I should not 
complain." 

This letter gives only a passing glimpse of three or 
four stations, and there are twenty-seven in that district, 
all expanding. Among these should be cited the 
immense Prefecture of Tsu-tcheou-fou, with ten Sub- 
Prefectures, and thousands of inhabitants. This is a 
poor and mountainous district full of upright men 
belonging to various religious sects, who seem ready to 
embrace the true faith. A very curious caste of people 
live beside them, differing completely in manners, 
language, and dress. These are the A-Kha, or exiles 
and emigrants from other places. They lead their own 
life, do not intermarry with the natives, and live in 
cabins made of straw at the foot of the mountains. 
They are a finer and more robust type of men, and their 
honesty is so remarkable that they would make splendid 
converts. I should like to have a dozen missionaries 
there, and we have only one catechist. 

Ouen-tcheau is the most ill-conditioned Prefecture 
in the province, being the abode of pirates, and a 
population so dense that it cannot be supported on the 
land fertile as it is ; therefore, many are driven to live 
at the expense of others. The Mandarins and the rich 
tremble before the pirates, some of whom by their 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS. 85 

bravery are almost heroes fit for a novel, and one man 
was so powerful that to weaken his influence the 
authorities made him a Mandarin ! Strange to say this 
region is also the most pious in the province, having as 
many bonzes as pirates ; and there is a sarcastic saying 
that if there be two boys in a family, the elder becomes 
a pirate, while the younger is to be a bonze, that his 
continual prayers may expiate his elder brother's mis- 
deeds, and avert the anger of heaven from the family. 
The monasteries are to be found everywhere, and the 
bonzes in this district enjoy a better reputation than 
elsewhere, although superstition is rife there. Their 
influence is so enormous that if we convert one of these 
men, his example is certain to be followed by entire 
villages. 

Here is one of the last letters received from Monsieur 
Lepens, who is in charge of this district : — *' More than 
a thousand Catechumens from Po-yen came to San- 
Kiao for the feast of the Assumption. They have eaten 
thirteen bags of rice, for which they paid as well as for 
their other meals here. At Po-yen the conversions are 
en masse, and what is to be done ? There should be a 
missionary station at Hai-men, as the river is incon- 
veniently in the way on account of the tides and the 
insufficiency of boats, so that the people starting at 
midnight do not reach the church till the next evening 
Five or ten chapels in central situations are needed, but 
where are the funds ? Should not an effort be made for 



86 ANOTHER CHINA. 

the salvation of so many thousands ? A Chinese priest 
has visited Sien-kin, where the Catechumens despaired 
of ever seeing a missionary. A Protestant European 
came to arg-ue with him, and his thirty followers 
threatened to fall upon us if we came there ; and the 
priest had much trouble quieting our Catechumens, 
who they say number 10,000. Two cantons have joined 
as under the leadership of three literati civilians, and 
another who is a military man, so the Chinese priest 
has hired a large house for a chapel. Our old Ouang at 
Ea-Ky continues his miracles by means of holy water. 
He drives away devils, cures the sick, and even the 
pagans apply to him, which explains the great number 
of conversions. But a chapel is sadly wanted, as we 
still have the old granary in which to say Mass, where 
you forbade women coming, as gambling and opium 
smoking went on in the room underneath. It is impos- 
sible to hear confessions there. In many other stations 
Catechumens are increasing, and we are simply over- 
whelmed." 

In another letter we are reminded that three poor 
missionaries cannot superintend properly so many 
stations full of converts, extending over four prefec- 
tures, where there are at least 800,000 infidels, and the 
missionaries are like drops of water in the ocean. It is 
not the insufficiency of our labours, but of our priests 
that is to be deplored. Without any exaggeration, a 
hundred missionaries could find plenty of serious labour, 



OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS. 



87 



and in ten years they would not be sufficient, as fresh 
districts would be opened on all sides. Our Christians, 
therefore, would be far more numerous were it not that 
the missionaries are no longer able to cope with their 
work among such multitudes of Catechumens. 




88 ANOTHER CHINA. 



XL 

OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS* 

In the preceding pages I have given, at some length, 
my views of the Chinese, and also, as far as my limits 
will permit, I have in a general way described the present 
state of the mission, and the grounds which we see for 
hoping for better results in the future than have been 
achieved in the past. In the following section it is 
proposed to describe in somewhat greater detail our 
resources and the methods of our work. The illustra- 
tions in this little book represent some of our work, 
and I will here describe those which are not depicted in 
the photographs, as well as those that are. As each 
one of our several works entails expense, it is hardly 
necessary to point out to the reader that in describing 
our various works, I am at the same time indicating the 
various needs of the mission. 

The Missionaries. — In the desperate contest between 
heaven and hell for the souls of men, priests are the 
proper officials deputed to fight for God and His Catholic 
Church, and to win from the demon slaves who without 
their intervention would be lost for ever. Peaceable 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS, 89 

soldiers of the cross they effect immense conquests for the 
true faith ; indefatigable labourers they sow the good seed 
of salvation in all directions, often fertilizing it by their 
sufferings, and sometimes by their blood. They are the 
main springs of every work undertaken for the conver- 
sion of the heathens who are perishing in thousands. 
Therefore, the need of missionaries is most urgent 
among these poor pagans, so that these souls wander- 
ing in darkness may have a chance of receiving a ray 
of hope. 

The Semmaries. — In obedience to the Holy See, and to 
supply the paucity of priests, everything is being done 
to train native priests who are indispensable on the 
mission. In the ** Petit Seminaire " at Chusan, there 
are forty youths, studying Latin and other sciences 
under a French missionary, so as later to become learned 
clergymen with attainments superior to those of the 
Chinese literati. In the ** Grand Seminaire ^' the 
students apply themselves to theology, which is taught in 
Latin and in one European language, and they also follow 
other classes to acquire knowledge that will be useful 
in their future ministry. It is really important that the 
native clergy should be highly educated in a country 
where learning, though based on the teachings of 
Confucius, and of the most antiquated description, is 
held in such great esteem by all ranks of people, from 
the highest to the lowest. Every Chinese boy constantly 
hears the proverb that *' ministers and generals are not 



90 ANOTHER CHINA. 

born in office," and that the only way to rise in life is 
by the pursuit of learning and the severe competitive 
examinations, the principle of which has been adopted 
nowadays in Europe. In every city of China there is 
the examination hall with small cells for students, and 
larger apartments for the examiners, and places where 
men are stationed to watch that the students have no 
assistance in their labours^ There have been instances 
when a grandfather of eighty, his son and grandson, 
have competed in the same examination for the same 
degree, which in one case was won by the old man. 
At Foo-chow, in 1889, nine candidates aged eighty, 
and two aged ninety, went through some examina- 
tions with much credit, and men of sixty, if they 
do not succeed in gaining any of the three higher 
degrees, receive an honorary one in recompense of their 
industry. ^ 

'' In the province* of Anhui," says Mr. Smith, " thirty- 
five of the competitors were over eighty years of age, 
and eighteen over ninety ! Could any other country 
afford a spectacle like this ? " 

Brothers, — These have a double vocation. They in- 
struct our orphan boys in different trades for their liveli- 
hood, and educate these poor children as good Christians. 
Of the boys entrusted to their care, some are taught 



1 A Cycle of Cathay, chap, ii W. A. P. Martin. 
^ Chinese Characteristics, chap. iv. Rev. A. Smith. 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS. 91 

agriculture on a farm belonging to the mission/ others 
become tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, &c., and it is also 
desirable that they should be taught the weaving of satin, 
which would be a very lucrative employment. Had they a 
good European artisan, there would be plenty of work on 
account of the great quantity of the satin required for 
embroideries ; therefore, during his visit to France, 
Monseigneur Reynaud intends to seek for some lay 
brothers acquainted with the process of weaving. 

The Brothers are also in demand as teachers in 
respectable pagan families, who desire their sons to be 
instructed in some European languages and sciences, 
and this naturally brings the best families in contact 
with the Catholic missionaries. 

Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, — Their 
work has been frequently mentioned in these pages, 
and it will not be necessary to say much about 
them here. Besides, they direct many of the good 
works which I have still to mention. These include 
no less than 8 hospitals, 4 hospices, 5 dispensaries, 
10 schools, and 5 orphanages — the sisters being in 

1 Respecting the acquisition of land and houses in China, a right 
secured to the missionaries after the " Arrow War," by the French, 
it may be well to mention that very often in the interior the local 
officials will oppose the purchase as much as they can, and we are 
told by Mr. Martin that " a favourite mode of nipping new missions 
in the bud has been for the local officials to refuse consent, and 
apply the bamboo to all persons concerned in a sale. Hereafter 
such proceedings will not be so frequent, but no one who knows 
China imagines that they will cease." — A Cycle of Cathay, chap, xv., 
p. 443. W. A, P. Martin. 



92 ANOTHER CHINA. 

number 35, including, as I have stated, several natives. 
I will only add to this statement, that their influence 
among all classes in the Vicariate is very great, and 
that we could hardly wish for a more eloquent argument 
for the religion which we represent than the one which 
is furnished by their presence, and the work which is 
accomplished by their devotion. 

Virgins of Purgatory. — The religious of this Institute 
are exclusively composed of natives. Their work, 
like that of the Sisters of Charity, consists to a great 
extent in the management of orphanages, schools, and 
institutions for women. Their special devotion, as is 
shown by their official title, is to the Holy Souls, and often 
to the most abandoned among them. Each day they offer 
for the solace of these poor souls, their works, their suffer- 
ings, and all their satisfactions. The foundation is a 
recent one, made in response to the expressed wishes of 
the Holy See ; tlieir vows are the usual ones of religion, 
but they are made annually. The Community consists 
mostly of young women, and they give us the greatest 
hopes for the future, as well as the deepest consolation 
at the present time. 

Catechists. — Like sentinels on outpost duty, these men 
prepare the way for the missionaries, by instructing 
Catechumens, settling local difficulties, preaching to the 
pagans, baptizing the dying, and leading the devotions 
on Sundays, where there is no priest to say Mass, in the 
chapels of which the Catechists are in charge. They 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS, 93 

are chosen among yoLithful and intelligent Christians 
who have no vocation for the ecclesiastical state, and 
for three or four years they learn their duties in a 
preparatory school, after which they acquire practical 
experience by going out with the missionaries. When 
they are married, they are sent to places where their 
services are most needed. A regular battalion of these 
Catechists is required, and Monseigneur Reynaud often 
cherishes the dream of '* A Society of the Seventy-two 
Disciples," so as to be able to send one to each of the 
seventy-two Prefectures of Tche-Kiang. 

Schools. — This is one of the most vital works of the 
mission, in which the Christianizing of children is con- 
cerned. They must be instructed very young, and taken 
away as much as possible from pagan surroundings. To 
do this properly, the schools should be near the mis- 
sionaries. There are central schools in all the chief 
mission stations, where the children are completely 
separated from bad influences, and are taught to practise 
their religion by their teachers and by the good example 
they see around them, whereas children who have not 
had this advantage are recognisable at a glance, as they 
do not comprehend their religion at all well. 

Another very important consideration is the following 
with regard to schools. They are often found to be 
most useful as a means of furthering conversions, as, 
according to a French missionary, *' When the infant 
comes to school, his father will soon follow the child to 



94 ANOTHER CHINA, 

the church," and these dear children, like St. John 
Baptist, fill the valleys and bring- low the mountains 
and hills, by opening to their parents the path leading 
to our Blessed Saviour.^ 

Catechu7nens. — The same remarks about the children 
may be applied to the Catechumens, who, unless they can 
spend a few months in our residences, near the priests and 
the church, never become really reliable Christians. The 
example and the daily instruction of the missionaries, 
the absence from pagan surroundings, and family cares, 
mean everything to them, as it is chiefly by means of 
sight and hearing they can be thoroughly christianized. 
An association to further the religious instruction of 
poor Catechumens on the Catholic missions already 
exists in France at the Carmelites of Tours, and is 
zealously supported by pious ladies. The Catechumens 
who cannot spend a short time in the mission station 
may know their catechism, but they do not understand 
their religion so perfectly as the others. 

Hospitals. — The following lines, written 27th Febru- 
ary, 1897, by one of the community of the Sisters of 
Charity at Ning-Po, will point out the good effected by 
a Catholic hospital : — 

'* The heathens come to this hospital with the same 



^ Taken from the Lcttres dc Jersey, vol. xiii., p. 13. The Editor 
of this publication kindly lent some volumes to the translator. The 
articles in them deal with the Jesuit vicariate of Kiang-nan, which 
is a near neighbour of Tche-Kiang. 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS. 95 

confidence as ever. Two pagan women, sisters un- 
happily married to opium smokers, came here to ask for 
baptism, as a passport to heaven. The eldest, who was 
here last year had been at home since her cure, where 
she has been telling all she knows of religion learned 
from us, to her young consumptive sister, who came 
here to die after being baptized. Some days later we 
heard that the eldest sister was ill again, and so serious 
was her state that we were obliged to gratify her wish 
for baptism. When slightly better she came here to 
prepare for her death to which she was quite resigned. 
The two little daughters-in-law of these sisters have 
also departed this life about the same time, and, favoured 
by the grace of conversion, one of them was afraid of 
going to heaven, for fear she should find her mother-in- 
law there, but we succeeded in convincing her that 
in heaven her mother-in-law could never ill-treat her 
again." ^ 

More than three thousand patients pass annually 
through the hospitals. Most of them go away cured, 



^ It is very usual to see in Chinese houses a little girl, the drudge 
of the women, who is cruelly beaten on all occasions. This is the 
future daughter-in-law often purchased for a dollar out of a heathen 
orphanage. Should the child break down, she is callously thrown 
out to die, and she is fortunate if she happen to be picked up by a 
Sister of Charity, or some humane person, and conveyed to the 
hospital. But if the girl grows up well in spite of the inhuman 
usage, she is married to the son for whom she has been purchased, 
and instantly is treated with consideration in the household, and in 
due time her own turn arrives to have a daughter-in-law to maltreat 
precisely in the same manner. 



9^ ANOTHER CHINA, 

and tell their relations and friends how well they have 
been treated. This favourable report lessens prejudices 
against the foreigners ; increases esteem for the sisters, 
spreads the knowledge of religion, and induces other 
sick people to come to the hospital, where they are often 
converted, or return later to be baptized and to die 
there. Cases of patients wilfully choosing to die in 
paganism are almost unknown, and, as a rule, they all 
become Christians in their last moments, and the 
baptisms in ariiculo mortis at the hour of death, amount 
to three hundred yearly. There are also dispen- 
saries attached to the hospitals frequented annually 
by 100,000 people, while the visits paid by the sisters 
to the sick in their own homes are over 35,000 in the 
year. 

Asylums. — These are for destitute old men, whose 
spiritual and corporal necessities are worthy of com- 
passion. Inurecl to suffering, they give little trouble, 
never complain, and are grateful for the interest taken 
in them. It is really a pleasure to see how they obey, 
and even forestall the least wish of the sister, trying to 
help her as far as they can. They are attentive to the 
religious instruction of the missionary, and are eager 
for baptism. This charitable work makes a good 
impression upon pagan Chinese, old age being held 
in great veneration by these people, who think a 
great deal more of kindness to the aged than to the 
children. 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS, 97 

Orphanages. — Were the missionaries to adopt e very- 
child thart is abandoned, especially in time of scarcity, 
they would be overwhelmed and their resources quickly- 
exhausted. It is a g-reat trial to be forced to reject 
so many, and Monseigneur Reynaud has often been 
aroused at night by the cries of infants left secretly at 
his door, to whom he could give nothing but the 
sacrament of baptism. Those fortunate children who 
are taken into the orphanages receive the most devoted 
care, and are brought up as simple and laborious 
Christians, who are settled in the M^orld as advan- 
tageously as possible. Some are placed in Christian 
families, while others form Christian villages which are 
like an oasis in the desert of paganism. Among the 
orphans cripples have a privileged place, as they require 
more care. The lame, paralytic, blind, deaf mutes, 
those suffering from spinal and other dreadful deformities^ 
as well as idiots, are all in this category, and have to be 
maintained all their lives. 

Home for Widows. — There is a refuge for these 
women at Ning-Po which ought to be enlarged, and 
others established in other parts of the province. 

Workers in Embroidery. — This new but little-known 
enterprise, the organization of which has occupied two 
years, is an excellent means of helping poor Christian 
and pagan families. Assisted by charitable people there 
is now a workroom with eighty women, and work is 
given out to fifty families by the Sisters of Charity, who 

H 



98 ANOTHER CHINA. 

have the management and the merit of this industry, 
it is a nice honest employment, and a great relief to 
poor people, while the wages gained by the wives 
strengthen the affection of the husbands, and bring 
peace and means to the household. Then the pagan 
women in communication with the Sisters see and 
learn much that is good from them, and sincere con- 
versions are frequent. To ensure the success of this 
industry many openings are required for the sale of the 
itvork. 

Churches and Chapels. — This subject has been left to 
the last, though it be not the least important. People 
are always more ready to assist the poor than to con- 
tribute to the erection of churches, although in Ireland 
this is less the case than in other countries, the pence of 
the poor Irish being generally the foundation of many 
noble churches. 

Now, chapels and churches are necessary in a mission 
for the celebration of Holy Mass, the administration of 
the Sacraments, and the observance of Sunday. In 
Tche-Kiang, covered with magnificent heathen pagodas, 
the want of suitable chapels is more felt by the converts, 
Avho are humbled at seeing how few are our ** Kong 
So " to those of the idols. 

This account of our work, writes Monseigneur 
Heynaud, is also a list of our wants, and in order 
that they should be better understood, a few figures 
are added to show the extent of some of our 
expenses. 



OUR WORKERS AND THEIR WANTS, 



99 



£ 


^, 


d. 


20 








16 








9 








10 


5 





7 


5 





3 


5 





2 


10 





2 








I 


12 






The annual keep of a Priest 

Religious (Brother, or Sister of Charity) 

Seminarist 

Virgin of Purgatory 

Catechist 

Patient (in hospital) 

Aged man (in hospice) 

Orphan or Catechumen. 

Widows, school-children, and infants (each) 

There is just one thing that is not inscribed upon the 
list of good works, in Chinese Catholic missions, an 
achievement that God alone can fully appreciate, viz., 
the physical and mental wear and tear of the missionary, 
who, sometimes exposed to a sudden martyrdom, more 
frequently dies by slow inches from the effects of priva- 
tions and overwork. Although he never complains, but 
joyfully sacrifices his life in the service of God, he asks, 
nevertheless, two things from his brethren in Europe : 
alms and prayers. As long as he lives, he will continue 
this supplication, for by prayers and alms he can obtain 
the dearest wish of a missionary heart — the salvation 
of souls. The merit arising from this double gift is the 
most precious treasure, the sweetest joy, and the best 
recompense he can desire for his benefactors. 
LofC, 



loo ANOTHER CHINA 



XIL 

PARTING WORDS* 

Some of our readers may think, after perusing these 
pages, that I am myself a little bit too much of a China- 
man. Whether this be a matter for praise or reproach,, 
I do not deny that I really love China as my adopted 
country where I hope to live and die. I found China 
far more beautiful and better in general than I had ever 
expected, and, in the midst of so many ill-conditioned 
pagans, I have met with such numbers of simple and 
honest souls, that my trials and disappointments have 
been alleviated by much consolation. Few missionaries 
will contradict this assertion, as China is a land of exile 
which they love, and which they rarely leave without 
regret. When obliged by ill-health or other reasons to- 
depart, it is always on the understanding that they will 
be allowed to return there. They positively yearn for 
China, and are only happy on seeing its shores again. 
To those, however, who have not been so fortunate on 
the mission, I should say that they must have had the 
mishap of meeting with a bad set of people, and that 
in other better disposed localities their labours would 



PARTING WORDS. loi 

certainly have been more successful. To those who 
persist in asking why there are still so few neophytes 
notwithstanding our efforts, we must always answer 
that these exertions would have been far more success- 
ful, in spite of violent persecutions, were It not for 
the paucity of missionaries, who, although they have 
certainly increased within the last fifty years, are even 
now in the proportion of one to four hundred thousand 
infidels. To appreciate the relative progress of religion 
we should bear in mind that the pagan Chinese, which 
according to some historians are over 400,000,000,^ far 
exceed the Catholics throughout the whole world ; con- 
sequently, when we reflect on the number of the 
missionaries and the sum total of annual conversions, 
we need not be discouraged. 

What is really most required in China for the spread 
of the faith is missionaries. Were there more priests 
we should have more Catechumens, as one missionary 
can only attend to a certain number of converts, who 
have to be tested, instructed, and trained in the ways of 
Christian life, all of which entail much labour, and 
often many journeys. He must have as many catechism 
classes as there are localities where Catechumens reside ; 
then he must settle various difliculties that always arise 
among the converts, such as family persecution, and 
"worries of all kinds, while the Mandarins are always 
ready to complicate the simplest cases ; so that a 

1 See, however, p 19. 



I02 ANOTHER CHINA. 

missionary may be kept stationary for a long time by 
one piece of business. 

We are also in great need of pecuniary assistance. 
Just as soldiers must have arms, the missionaries must 
have funds, to build the chapel, the school, and the little 
presbytery, which are as it were the outposts of the 
mission ; to say nothing of the schoolmaster, the cook, 
a servant, and a band of young converts studying 
Christian doctrine. Our strongholds are represented 
by our great churches, central schools, orphanages, 
hospitals, dispensaries, asylums and various other works 
of charity. Thus, there are many ways of exhausting 
the missionary's purse, though he may himself live on 
very little, as our converts will never let him die of 
starvation, but are always ready to share their houses 
and food with him. Still a large family of orphans and 
destitute people fretjuently depend on him for their 
support. Hence if we do not choose to assist the 
missions by sending out numerous priests and sufficient 
material aid, it will be useless to talk of China as a land 
of the future for the Catholic Church. 

Moreover, to do something for China would appear 
to be a special duty for Great Britain ; but whereas 
France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Holland have many 
representatives there doing good work for the people, 
there is at present only one English-speaking priest^ in 

1 This is the Rev. John M'Veigh, CM., of Pekin, who has been 
recently making a tour in Great Britain and Ireland. We are 



PARTING WORDS, 105, 

the whole Empire. This is the more to be regretted, as 
British sailors, merchants, and traders in the Chinese 
ports far outnumber those of other European countries. 
Certainly it is but just to acknowledge that in the 
matter of Protestant missions, England shows plenty 
of generosity with regard to the conversion of China. 
Every year she sends out bands of missionaries with 
handsome stipeiids, often at the same time that hundreds- 
of cases of that poison called opium are introduced as^ 
British merchandise. Ought not Catholic England and 
Ireland try to do something to repair the errors of 
Protestant and commercial England ? This would be 
only to pay a debt and to expiate a wrong. The mean&. 
are simple enough ; send us money if you can, but 
above all send us men. As regards the former, I do- 
not ask for large sums. Are there any so poor who- 
cannot afford even a penny ? Yet it is precisely these 
pence that do wonders. They support the apostles who< 
convert the heathens ; they build churches and chapels 
in a land where pagodas abound ; they contribute to- 
the education of priests in the seminaries ; they maintain 
the old, the sick, and the orphans, all so numerous 
among us : and without the help of these pence how 
many heathens are there who would die hopeless after a 
life full of privation. 

indebted to him for much information about China, which has been 
of great use in preparing this edition of Monseigneur Reynaud's. 
notes. — (Editor.) 



I04 ANOTHER CHINA, 

With regard to missionaries themselves, they should 
he men of physical strength and real self-sacrifice, and 
should be properly trained for the peculiar hardships of 
this mission. It is the great desire of Monseigneur 
Reynaud's heart to have some English, or English- 
speaking missionaries. For one thing, their influence, 
in counteracting the peculiar obstacles raised by the 
Protestant missions, would be very valuable. On this 
subject, an English lady at Ning-Po, writes : '' I hope 
that the presence of English-speaking priests would 
prevent our Protestant compatriots from behaving in 
the very objectionable way they often do — not at 
Ning-Po, where we have the ehVe, many of them 
educated gentlemen, but in the interior, where with 
some of them their one creed seems to be preaching 
against Catholicity." It is hardly necessary to point 
out that all this could be far more easily dealt with by 
those who speak the same language as these * objection- 
able ' ministers, and who from proximity to them at 
home, are acquainted with their doctrines and their 
methods. Besides, it is wrong to leave the Chinese 
under the belief that the English people are universally 
members of what they call the English Religion.^ To 
further this aim of Monseigneur Reynaud, a fund for 

1 The presence of Sir Nicholas O'Connor, as British Ambassador, 
for some years at Pekin, that most successful of diplomatists and 
most fervent of Irish Catholics, did something towards breaking 
down this idea among the Mandarins and the court officials ; but 
his influence did not so directly reach the masses. 



PARTING WORDS. 105 

China has been started in connection with the Irish 
branch of the Arch-Confraternity of St. Joseph, Protector 
of the souls of Purg-atory. It is the work of the 
Confra.ternity to provide priests for foreign missions 
who will belong to St. Joseph and to the Holy Souls. 
No more g-lorious work could be looked forward to by 
the Apostolic student than to devote himself to this 
immense Empire with its millions of pagan sfmls, so 
many of whom sh^w themselves willing to see the light 
of the true faith when it is brought before their eyes. 
It is hoped that many will offer themselves before long, 
and the fund to which we refer has been started for 
the special support and assistance of such students.^ 

Another important assistance is prayer for the success 
of our undertaking; and who is there who cannot pray 
for the conversion of souls, and their perseverance in the 
faith ? Many conversions may be attributed less to the 
labours of the missionary than to the fervent prayers of 
many an obscure person living far away. In their retired 
cloisters, monks and nuns may in this way give great 
help by their prayers to the evangelization of China. 
Thus by alms and by prayers everyone can become a 
missionary, closing the gates of hell, and opening those 



1 Any contributions to the China Fund for St. Joseph's Young- 
Priests, will be acknowledged in St. Joseph's Sheaf, which is the 
quarterly organ of the Arch-Confraternity of St. Joseph. The address 
of the Secretary is 7, Eblana-Terrace, Kingstown, who will also 
forward full particulars as to the Fund, and the Masses offered for 
those who contribute to it. 



^o6 ANOTHER CHINA. 

of heaven to innumerable heathens. Self-interes brlng"s 
to China people in search of the wealth it contains. 
Shall we be less eager where far superior interests are 
•concerned, and should we not endeavour to do all in 
our power to cultivate this fertile soil giving us such 
hopes for the advancement of religion ? 

Therefore, may this immense Empire be invaded by- 
numerous fervent and apostolic men planting the cross 
an every direction, and saving souls from, the mire of 
paganism. In the knowledge of the true faith may 
those generous and upright beings, who, led away by 
error, are yet sighing for happiness, soon find among 
us that which they desire. 

Da Mihi Animas ! 




